The company refused to comment or disclose any further details regarding the circulating news.

Apple Inc. (AAPL.O) is reportedly turning its sights to the field of artificial intelligence (AI), Bloomberg reported on Wednesday, following in the footsteps of its rival tech giants.

The latest plan includes building a framework, named “Ajax”, focused on developing large language models (LLMs), similar to the likes of OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard. Sources revealed that there are ongoing tests for a chatbot internally referred to as “Apple GPT”.

Despite the big news, Apple declined to comment when approached by Reuters, leaving several details about the grand reveal unknown. However the new revelation nudged the company’s shares upward by as much as 2%, hitting a record high.

The news still marks a strategic shift for Apple, which has so far been conspicuously silent on substantial AI initiatives, especially when compared to industry titans like Alphabet (GOOGL.O) and Microsoft (MSFT.O), both of which have aggressively pursued AI technologies.

The strategic reticence was on full display at its June developer conference, where the term AI was noticeably absent.

Following the news, shares of tech rivals Microsoft, Nvidia (NVDA.O), and Alphabet experienced a more than 1% dip.

Even though Apple has integrated advanced AI capabilities in a subdued manner across its products such as Apple Photos, on-device texting, and the recently unveiled mixed-reality headset, Vision Pro, analysts suggest the company lags behind its counterparts in embracing this transformative tech.

The company’s main AI product, voice assistant Siri, has seen limited evolution in recent years.

The initiative into AI is reportedly a cross-functional effort led by John Giannandrea, who oversees machine learning and AI at Apple, along with Craig Federighi, the company’s lead software engineering executive.

The project involves creating a virtual assistant that can summarise text and respond to queries based on trained data. The tool is currently being used internally for product prototyping, and according to insiders, it mirrors the functionality of Bard, ChatGPT, and Bing AI, operating as a web application, according to Bloomberg.

While concrete plans regarding the use of these advanced tools remain undisclosed, sources suggest Apple is gearing up for a major AI-related announcement next year.

These developments signal that Apple might finally be ready to join the AI race with its rivals, potentially heralding a new era in its technological advancement.