Apple is actively working on its own artificial intelligence (AI) offerings, which are said to be akin to OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Bard, according to a report by Bloomberg news. This news sent Apple's shares soaring by as much as 2 per cent, reaching a record high.

According to the report, Apple has been building its own framework called "Ajax" to create large language models (LLMs) and has been testing a chatbot internally referred to as "Apple GPT."

It is noteworthy that Apple has been relatively restrained in the AI field compared to other tech giants like Alphabet and Microsoft, who have been making bold strides in integrating AI technology into their products and services. Nevertheless, Apple has subtly incorporated advanced AI features into some of its existing products, such as Apple Photos, on-device texting, and the recently launched mixed-reality headset Vision Pro.

The report indicated that Apple's voice assistant, Siri, has somewhat stagnated over the years. To revitalise its AI efforts, several teams led by John Giannandrea, Apple's head of machine learning and AI, along with Craig Federighi, the company's top software engineering executive, are involved in the latest AI initiative.

The new virtual assistant, currently being tested internally, functions as a web application and is capable of summarising text and providing answers based on the data it has been trained with. Employees have likened the tool to Google's Bard, ChatGPT, and Bing AI in terms of its capabilities.

As of now, Apple does not have a concrete plan for the AI tools it is developing. However, the company reportedly aims to make a significant AI-related announcement sometime next year.

In response to this news, shares of Microsoft, Nvidia, and Alphabet dipped by over 1 per cent.