Tim Cook Says Apple Hiring AI Staff In UK

Apple chief executive Tim Cook has said the company is hiring more AI staff in the UK, as the firm said it supports more than 550,000 jobs across the country through direct employment and other means.

“We’re hiring in that area, yes, and so I do expect it (investment) to increase,” Cook told the PA news agency on a visit to London’s Battersea, where the company opened a new UK headquarters and Apple Store in the district’s historic power station earlier this year.

He said AI is “literally everywhere on our products”, citing features such as Fall Detection and Crash Detection on the Apple Watch.

“And of course we’re also researching generative AI as well, so yes we have a lot going on,” Cook added.

Generative AI

The firm was rumoured in July to be developing generative AI technology along the lines of ChatGPT, but Cook made no mention of the research at its most recent product launch last month.

Coinciding with Cook’s visit the company said it has opened a new office in Cambridge with several hundred staff working on technologies including artificial intelligence, machine learning and processors.

ARM, which develops the technology behind Apple Silicon, is also based in Cambridge.

Apple released the first images of its 500,000 square foot, six-storey UK headquarters in Battersea Power Station, which it said runs entirely on renewable energy.

The campus began operations earlier this year, after Apple announced the move in 2016, and the company opened a new Apple Store at the same location in June.

Developer base

Apple said it now has nearly 8,000 staff across the country and supports more than 550,000 jobs when including its spending with UK suppliers and iOS app developers.

Cook said the UK was Apple’s third-largest employee population around the world and had the leading developer community for Europe.

“We have developers here working on great apps. We have developers here working on Vision Pro apps and so the developer community is really important to us and we have a huge user base here,” he said.

“We love serving the market – we’ve been here for 40 years, so it’s deeply embedded in us.”