Apple will defy the layoff trend by employing UK AI staff

 

Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company wanted to hire more staff in the UK, as opposed to layoffs across the tech sector.

He said the company wanted to hire more staff to work on artificial intelligence (AI).

It comes a day after Fortnite maker Epic Games announced it would cut 16% of its workforce.

Major companies, including Amazon, Meta, Google and Microsoft, have cut tens of thousands of jobs since 2022.

Cook has criticized the trend of tech layoffs, calling it a “last resort” in May.

Instead, when asked about AI and jobs in the UK, he told the PA news agency: "We are hiring in this area, yes, and so I expect an increase in [investment]."

companies are investing money in AI. Amazon announced on Monday an investment of up to $4 billion (£3.3 billion) in San Francisco-based artificial intelligence company Anthropic.

This followed Microsoft's multi-billion dollar investment in OpenAI, maker of ChatGPT, in January.

Culture Minister Michelle Donelan said Apple's decision was "another vote of confidence in our emerging technology sector".

"Apple's continued investment in brilliant British talent underlines our global reputation as a technology and artificial intelligence superpower," he wrote on X, the microblogging site formerly known as Twitter.

Antony Walker, deputy director of industry body techUK, said: “The transformative nature of AI will undoubtedly increase headcount at AI companies in the coming years.”

But he added: “In the long term, the skills needs of the AI-driven economy of the future are harder to predict. Therefore, companies and government should work together on a long-term strategy that promotes training in digital skills and other areas.” Lifelong learning at the core."

Meanwhile, Tim Pullan, CEO of ThoughtRiver, which provides artificial intelligence to legal professionals, said he believes the global economy is at the beginning of an "AI-driven revolution."

“It is vital that the UK is at the forefront of this transformation,” he said.

“As a country we have huge potential to grow as an AI superpower and I am sure this is the start of a trend where more and more companies will look to take advantage of the UK's extensive technological expertise and the UK will benefit from it to benefit from what investments and innovations this will bring.

Copyright Concerns

Cook said AI is behind several notable features of Apple devices, such as software that detects whether a person has fallen or had an accident, as well as more commonly used tools such as predictive typing.

“It’s literally everywhere in our products, and of course we’re also into generative AI, so we have a lot going on,” he said.

Generative AI (artificial intelligence that can create media based on text messages) remains an investment target for large companies despite widespread concerns about its impact on copyright or ownership.

This is because the software “learns” by analyzing huge amounts of data that is often accessed online and people fear that it is based on their copyrighted work.

This has led to high-profile lawsuits in the US, with authors George RR Martin and John Grisham suing OpenAI, claiming their books were used to train the system.