Apple is under pressure to deliver on AI at Monday’s WWDC event
周一的全球开发者大会（WWDC）上，苹果面临着展示人工智能成果的压力 （译者注：WWDC 指的是苹果公司的全球开发者大会（Worldwide Developers Conference）。在这个年度活动中，苹果通常会发布新的操作系统和软件更新，并且为开发者提供各种研讨会和教育课程。）
Company expected to unveil message-writing help, other features; OpenAI among potential partners in advanced artificial intelligence
（苹果）公司有望推出信息撰写辅助和其他功能；OpenAI 可能是其在高级人工智能领域的潜在合作伙伴
Apple’s AI moment is here.
苹果的人工智能时代来了。
After seeing its value stagnate compared with rivals that were quicker to incorporate generative artificial intelligence into their core products, the iPhone maker on Monday will hold what might be its most momentous software event in a decade. ***
与那些更早地将生成式人工智能融入其核心产品的竞争对手相比，苹果的价值停滞不前，于是，这家 iPhone 制造商将于周一举行一场十年来最重要的软件发布盛会。
At its Worldwide Developers Conference, which begins at 1 p.m. ET and will run throughout the week, the company is expected to announce a raft of new AI features.
全球开发者大会于美国东部时间下午1点开始，并将持续一周。该公司预计将在会上宣布一系列新的人工智能功能。
Those include message-writing assistance, photo editing and text summarization, as well as a boost in capabilities for voice assistant Siri.
这些功能包括信息撰写辅助、照片编辑和文本摘要，以及语音助手 Siri 的功能提升。
Apple is also expected to strike one or more partnerships for more advanced AI capabilities, such as with OpenAI’s ChatGPT, according to people familiar with the matter.
据知情人士透露，苹果公司还有望与更先进的人工智能功能达成一项或多项合作，比如与 OpenAI 的 ChatGPT 合作。
For Apple, the past year has been characterized by challenges including falling sales in China and regulatory scrutiny from a U.S. antitrust lawsuit and a new European law, both of which take aim at how it manages third-party software.
对于苹果公司来说，过去的一年充满了挑战，包括中国市场销售额下滑、美国反垄断诉讼和欧洲新法律的监管审查，这两起诉讼都针对的是苹果公司如何管理第三方软件。
Investors are impatient and hope Monday’s announcements will propel a new rally.
投资者们已经失去耐心了，并且希望周一的发布会能推动新一轮的股价回升。
“It’s important for them to start showing progress,” said Charles Rinehart, chief investment officer at Johnson Investment Counsel, an Apple investor.
查尔斯·莱因哈特（Charles Rinehart）是苹果投资者约翰逊投资顾问公司的首席投资官，他说：“他们必须要开始（向各方）展示这一年的进展。”
Behind the scenes, Apple has been trying over the past year to find ways of integrating generative AI into its products, The Wall Street Journal recently reported.
据《华尔街日报》近期报道，过去一年里，苹果公司幕后一直在努力寻找将生成式人工智能整合到其产品中的方法。
Apple’s shares have risen about 8% in the past year. Microsoft has surged roughly 26%, and it supplanted Apple as the world’s most valuable company by market capitalization in January. Google is up 41% over the past year.
过去一年，苹果公司的股价上涨了约8%。而微软的股价飙升约26%，并于今年1月取代苹果成为全球市值最高的公司。谷歌过去一年的股价上涨了41%。
Microsoft and Google have rapidly incorporated generative AI across their products.
微软和谷歌迅速地在其产品中融入了生成式人工智能。
Nvidia, the main chip provider in the AI boom, reached a $3 trillion valuation on Wednesday and briefly exceeded Apple’s market capitalization.
作为人工智能热潮中的主要芯片供应商，英伟达（Nvidia）的估值在周三达到了3万亿美元，暂时超过了苹果公司的市值。
Meanwhile, Apple’s research-and-development spending has been slowing over the past year, with spending growing by a single-digit percentage each quarter and declining less than 1% in the December quarter.
与此同时，苹果的研发投入在过去一年中一直在放缓，每个季度的投入增长幅度都只有个位数，并且在第四季度中，甚至还出现了不足1%的下降。（译者注：December quarter 通常指的是以12月为结束月份的一个财务季度。在许多公司的财务报告中，这个季度通常是第四季度（Q4），包括10月、11月和12月。）
During its most recent earnings report, last month, Apple Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri said in response to a question about the company’s AI spending: “We obviously are pushing very hard on innovation on every front, and we’ve been doing that for many, many years. Just during the last five years, we spent more than $100 billion in research and development.”
在上个月发布的最新财报中，苹果首席财务官卢卡·梅斯特里（Luca Maestri）在回答有关公司人工智能投入的问题时表示：“显然，我们在各个方面都在大力推动创新，而且我们这样做已经持续了很多年。仅在过去的五年里，我们在研发方面的投入就超过了1000亿美元。”
While Apple is hoping to show consumers and investors a more cohesive AI strategy on Monday, the company is facing challenges in its core iPhone business, which accounts for roughly half of its overall sales.
尽管苹果公司希望在周一向消费者和投资者展示更有凝聚力的人工智能战略，但该公司的核心业务 iPhone 却面临着挑战，该业务约占其总销售额的一半。
For the past two years, iPhone sales have been mostly stagnant, and even declined more than 10% in Apple’s most recent March quarter.
在过去的两年里，iPhone 的销售基本处于停滞状态，在苹果最近的第三季度中，iPhone 的销量甚至下降了10%以上。
Investors and analysts said Apple could boost iPhone sales by refreshing the product with new AI capabilities, especially if some of those AI features only work with new or high-end iPhone models.
投资者和分析师表示，苹果可以通过更新产品，增加新的人工智能功能来提振 iPhone 销量，尤其是如果其中一些人工智能功能只适用于新款或高端的 iPhone 机型的话。
“AI is the thing that can get Apple out of the ditch,” said Trip Miller, managing partner at Apple investor Gullane Capital Partners. “They’re this big behemoth. It takes a new story to get them moving in a new direction. AI is that opportunity for them.”
“人工智能是能让苹果走出困境的关键。”苹果投资者古兰资本（Gullane Capital Partners）的管理合伙人特里普·米勒（Trip Miller）说，“他们（苹果公司）是行业巨头。要让他们朝着新的方向发展，就需要一个新的故事。而人工智能就是他们的机会。”
Apple last experienced a surge in iPhone sales during the pandemic, when the company was upgrading the phone with speedier 5G cellular chips.
苹果上一次经历 iPhone 销量激增是在疫情期间，当时该公司升级了速度更快的 5G 蜂窝芯片手机。
Many of those consumers who bought during the pandemic are also due for a new phone, so they might be inclined to buy, especially if the new capabilities impress.
许多在那段时间购买了新手机的消费者现在可能需要再换一部新机，因此他们可能会有购买的意愿，尤其是如果新款手机的性能和功能能够令人眼前一亮的话。
Investors are also hoping there could be some sort of service-revenue boost with the new AI offerings, potentially in the form of a monthly subscription Apple charges or that third-party AI developers could charge.
投资者还希望新的人工智能产品能够以某种形式带来服务收入的增长，可能是苹果收取月度订阅费的形式，也可能是第三方人工智能开发商收取费用的形式。
With Apple’s move to establish partnerships with external developers for more advanced AI capabilities, the company is showing that it is looking for ways to insulate itself from some of the risks and costs associated with these generative AI models, said David Wagner, a portfolio manager at Apple shareholder Aptus Capital Advisors. ***
大卫·瓦格纳（David Wagner）是苹果公司股东万通资本顾问公司（Aptus Capital Advisors）的投资组合经理，他表示，苹果公司与外部开发商建立合作关系以此来开发更先进的人工智能功能，这表明该公司正在寻找方法来规避一些与生成式人工智能模型相关的风险和成本。
These new artificial-intelligence systems cost billions of dollars in computing resources, and some of them occasionally have made up facts and experienced other unexpected behaviors.
这些新的人工智能系统在计算资源上需要耗费数十亿美元，其中一些偶尔会编造事实，并表现出一些意想不到的行为。
“Apple is passing off the liabilities of AI to a partner like OpenAI,” Wagner said. “Apple knows which battles to fight and which ones not to fight. This isn’t one they’re fighting.”
瓦格纳说：“苹果正在把人工智能的责任转嫁给 OpenAI 这样的合作伙伴。苹果知道哪些仗值得打，哪些仗不值得打。这不是他们要打的仗。”（译者注：battles to fight 这里比喻公司面临的挑战或者需要解决的问题。）