The buzz surrounding A.I. technologies has been hard to ignore this year, with the chatbot phenomenon ChatGPT making waves. While tech giants like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon are racing to develop powerful generative A.I., one notable absence from the competition is Apple.Now, reports have emerged that Apple is quietly working on artificial intelligence tools that could challenge those of OpenAI Inc., Alphabet Inc.’s Google and others, but the company has yet to devise a clear strategy for releasing the technology to consumers.

The iPhone maker has built its framework to create large language models — the AI-based systems at the heart of new offerings like ChatGPT and Google’s Bard — according to people with knowledge of the efforts. With that foundation, known as “Ajax,” Apple also has created a chatbot service that some engineers call “Apple GPT.”

Although Apple has not publicly positioned itself as a competitor in the generative A.I. race, it has long been leveraging the technology to improve its devices. Siri, the world’s first A.I.-powered virtual assistant, was integrated into the iPhone 4S in 2011. Apple has recently incorporated “machine learning” into its Vision Pro headset.

Apple has sought generative A.I. talent for months, with numerous related job openings on its careers page.