TIME has unveiled its list of the 100 most influential people in artificial intelligence for 2024, and Apple CEO Tim Cook is nowhere to be seen.
While the company garnered one nod to SVP of Machine Learning John Giannandrea, Apple's overall lack of presence on the list is a telling sign that industry commentators still believe the company is a step behind when it comes to AI.
TIME says the list's purpose "is to put leaders... in dialogue and to open up their views to TIME’s readers." TIME says the list "offers examples of the possibilities for AI when it moves out of the lab and into the world" and includes 91 people who didn't make the list last year.
Apple's AI snub
Despite the prospect of Apple Intelligence arriving with iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia later this year, it's clear that the company isn't making the same moves in the AI sphere as giants like Google. A contrast reflect in Google's six nominations for the list.
As you might expect, Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai was top dog. CEO and co-founder of Google DeepMind Demis Hassabis was also listed alongside John Jumper, Ray Kurzweil, Iason Gabriel, and Francois Chollet.
Other honorable mentions include Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, and Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI. The latter's ChatGPT will come integrated into iPhone, iPad, and Mac as part of Apple Intelligence later this year. Apple will lean on OpenAI for more complex queries including image- and document-understanding capabilities, assistance in Writing Tools, and generating images.
Giannandrea, Apple's sole nominee, has been at the company since 2018. Apple unveiled Apple Intelligence at WWDC 2024, positioning it as a more focused toolset that will help everyone in their daily lives.
