Tim Cook, chief executive officer of Apple, stated that the company intends to hire more staff in the United Kingdom, which is in contrast to the widespread layoffs that have been seen in the technology sector.
He stated that the organization has expressed an interest in hiring additional personnel to work on artificial intelligence (AI).
This news comes one day after the developer of Fortnite, Epic Games, revealed that it will be laying off 16% of its workers.
Since the year 2022, significant employers such as Amazon, Meta, Google, and Microsoft have eliminated tens of thousands of jobs.
Mr. Cook has voiced his disapproval of the current pattern of layoffs in the technology industry, and in May, he referred to it as a “last resort.”
When asked about artificial intelligence and jobs in the UK, he instead stated the following to the PA news agency: “We’re hiring in that area, yes, and so I do expect [investment] to increase.”
The field of artificial intelligence is attracting significant financial investment. On Monday, Amazon disclosed that it would be investing up to $4 billion (or £3.3 billion) in the artificial intelligence (AI) company Anthropic, which is situated in San Francisco.
This came after Microsoft made an investment in the maker of ChatGPT totaling multiple billions of dollars in January.
Apple’s decision was described as “another vote of confidence in our burgeoning tech sector” by Culture Secretary Michelle Donelan.
She wrote this on X, the microblogging site that was once known as Twitter. “Apple’s ongoing investment in brilliant British talent highlights our global credentials as both an AI and technology superpower,” she said.
The deputy chief of techUK, which is an industry group, Antony Walker, stated that “the transformative nature of AI will certainly boost staff headcount in AI businesses over the next couple of years.”
However, he continued by saying that “in the long term, it is harder to predict the skills need of the AI-powered economy of the future.” Because of this, private companies and the government should collaborate on the development of a long-term strategy that places an emphasis on continuous education and the acquisition of digital skills.
In the meantime, Tim Pullan, CEO of ThoughtRiver, which provides artificial intelligence (AI) for legal professionals, stated that he believed “an AI-driven revolution” was about to begin in the world’s economy.
He stated that it was extremely significant for the United Kingdom to be at the forefront of this shift.
“As a nation, we have enormous potential to develop into an AI superpower, and I’m certain that this is the beginning of a trend that will see more and more companies looking to take advantage of the United Kingdom’s deep tech expertise, and the United Kingdom will benefit from the investment and innovation that this will bring.”
Concerns related to copyright
Mr. Cook stated that artificial intelligence was the driving force behind several key features seen on Apple devices. These features include software that can determine if a person has fallen or been involved in a collision, as well as utilities that are more frequently utilized, such as predictive typing.
“It’s literally everywhere on our products, and of course we’re also researching generative AI as well, so needless to say, we have a lot going on,” he said.
Large companies continue to be interested in investing in Generative AI, which is an artificial intelligence that can create media based on text prompts. This is the case despite widespread concerns over the impact that Generative AI will have on copyright or ownership.
The reason for this is that the software “learns” by analyzing a vast quantity of data that is frequently supplied online, and many are afraid that it relies on their work that is protected by intellectual property laws.
It has resulted in high-profile lawsuits in the United States, with writers George RR Martin and John Grisham suing OpenAI over allegations that the system was trained using their respective works of fiction.
