Apple announced its earnings for the second quarter on Thursday, and Tim Cook, the company’s chief executive, interviewed with CNBC. CNBC wrote the following:

Cook also said Apple has “big plans to announce” from an “AI point of view” during its iPad event next week as well as at the company’s annual developer conference in June.

I don’t even understand why this was reported on, because artificial intelligence is the new craze both in Silicon Valley and Wall Street. Of course the chief executive of the world’s second-largest technology company — which reported revenue down 4 percent this quarter — would try to pump his stock price, and of course he would do that by saying there will be an AI-related announcement at next week’s hotly anticipated Apple event. It makes logical sense from a business perspective: If Cook can motion investors to hold off on dumping Apple stock this week, he can launch new iPads next week, point to the sales numbers, and watch the stock hike again. That is his job.

Later, CNBC retracted its original quote, but gave the full context to Zac Hall, editor at large at 9to5Mac, somehow:

We’re getting into a period of time here where we’re extremely excited like I’m in the edge of my seat literally because next week, we’ve got a product event that we’re excited about. And then just a few weeks thereafter, we’ve got the… Worldwide Developers Conference coming up and we’ve got some big plans to announce in both of these events. From an AI point of view…

Cook is not saying there will be AI-related announcements at these events, he is just saying (a) that there are “big plans” and (b) there will be announcements some time between now and the end of eternity “from an AI point of view.” Those are mutually exclusive statements — it is foolish to assume otherwise because Cook is well-trained before he sits in front of the media. Apple never reveals what it will announce before an event, even when it would be in the interest of the stock price.

So, that all begs the question: Will there be AI at next week’s event or not? It’s impossible to say conclusively, but I think there will certainly be mentions of AI during the presentation. However, I do not believe Apple will announce AI software of its own just a month before WWDC, where software is usually debuted. I imagine the AI references will be limited to passing mentions of how the new iPads Pro are “great for AI computing” and how you can run AI models with apps on the App Store, just like the “Scary fast” Apple event from October, where the company announced the M3 MacBooks Pro. The mentions will exist to please investors and to hold them off just a bit longer for WWDC, where the big-ticket AI features will be introduced via iOS 18.

Thursday’s keynote will not be a preview of AI features — or at least, so I think. Instead, it looks like it’ll serve as a filler event to build anticipation for the true announcements coming in the summer, while also finally refreshing the iPads, which is long overdue. This scenario also takes into account Mark Gurman’s report for Bloomberg on Sunday that said Apple will ship the M4 in the new iPads Pro: M4 or not, this event is slated to be hardware-focused, and I think the only AI references next week will exist to appease Wall Street. My final take: No AI at next week’s event.