Should Apple open up its wallet?

Apple’s annual developers conference has usually been a must-watch event for what it revealed about the iPhone giant’s plans.

But this year’s event has been more notable for what it didn’t focus on: advancements in artificial intelligence tools. For skeptics, it only underscores Apple’s weakness in the fast-growing technology, and raises the question of whether the company needs to follow rivals like Meta and make a splashy purchase to keep up.

This year’s Worldwide Developers Conference so far is light on A.I. tools, as Apple focused more on new designs for iPhone and Mac software.

Yes, users will soon have access to live translations of text messages and visual search and shop features. But that’s a far cry from the big promises that Apple made last year — many of which remain unfulfilled — let alone what competitors have since introduced. Google announced an A.I. search feature that works like a chatbot; Amazon showed off an Alexa that can help book concert tickets.

Apple has played catch-up before, but analysts are worried. “The big risk is that you could have users go to ChatGPT or some other product that consumers become dependent on,” Carolina Milanesi, principal analyst with the research firm Creative Strategies, told The Times.

Rivals are being much more aggressive. The latest example: Meta is creating a research lab to pursue “superintelligence,” hypothetical A.I. technology that surpasses the human brain’s abilities. To help bolster that effort, Facebook’s parent company is planning to invest billions into Scale AI, which helps customers train their A.I. systems, and have Alexandr Wang, the start-up’s C.E.O., join the lab.