TL;DR: Today is Apple’s 50th birthday. The nearly $4 trillion consumer hardware giant got its humble start in a Bay Area garage on April Fools’ Day a half-century ago. Now, as AI reshapes Silicon Valley, Apple is still “thinking differently” from its Big Tech rivals—including when it comes to its eyebrow-raising AI strategy.

What happened: Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak—and lesser known co-founder Ronald Wayne—signed a document establishing the Apple Computer Company on April 1, 1976. Fast-forward 50 years, and the suburban garage has given way to a massive ring-shaped office in Cupertino, California, with 166,000 employees.

The company reinvented itself several times in those decades—perhaps most famously when Jobs returned in 1997 to pull the company back from the brink. That led to a string of hits: the iMac, the iPod, and eventually the iPhone, the 2007 release of which redefined the tech industry for years to come.

Watch and wait: Apple notably wasn’t first to any of these categories. But its products became synonymous with each, thanks to a focus on sleek, intuitive design and mass-market appeal. Apple’s strategy has long been to let the initial tech frenzy play out, then arrive later with a more polished mainstream-ready device.

A new wave of transformative technology is now putting that tack to the test. Companies like Microsoft, Alphabet, Meta, and Amazon are collectively pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into new generative AI infrastructure, racing to roll out new chatbots, and folding AI into every nook and cranny of their products.

Apple is pushing into AI, too, but its moves have been much more restrained. Apple only spent $12.7 billion in capital expenditures—i.e., data centers for AI—in its fiscal year that ended last September. (By comparison, Meta spent $72 billion, and Alphabet spent $91 billion, with both numbers set to climb this year.)

While these companies are building giant cloud-based models, Apple is focused on smaller systems that can run on-device, leaning into its custom silicon and hardware strengths. And its Siri assistant remains somewhat quaint in an era where AI chatbots are standing in as people’s best friends, coworkers, and doctors.

Last laugh?: Apple Intelligence was widely seen as somewhat underwhelming when it first rolled out in late 2024—nearly two years after ChatGPT. Even today, Apple’s AI offerings are nowhere near as prominent as those of its rivals.

And yet Apple’s share price has grown more than Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon in the past year. The company still reaps rewards—at least $1 billion in AI revenue, per one estimate—from subscriptions within AI apps on its App Store.

Apple is now reportedly planning to allow more third-party models to integrate with Siri, positioning it as a hub for different AI models.

In memoriam: In honor of its birthday, here’s a look back at some Apple devices we lost over the years.

• The iPod shuffle (2005-2017): The tiniest screenless member of the iPod family was a great workout companion.

• The iBook (1999-2006): A more colorful clamshell precursor to the Macbook.

• The AirPort (1999-2018): Apple’s bulbous wireless routers and network cards were sleeker than your average connective device.

Bottom line: As Apple turns 50, the question is whether its covetous position in the device market—one that some AI companies are chasing—allows it the luxury to lag behind in the AI race. So far, Apple’s pinpoint focus on its consumer hardware strengths hasn’t seemed to hurt it much financially. Will Apple be able to successfully apply its iPhone formula to AI? —PK

Why flip a switch when you can just exist?

A few weeks ago, we shared a tip about installing motion sensor light switches that automatically turn on lights when you walk into high-traffic rooms in your home like mudrooms, pantries, closets, and basements. Tech Brew reader Tom from Northeast Kingdom, Vermont, wrote in to say our hack “didn’t go far enough” and recommended using motion sensor light bulbs that can screw into any light socket.

The setup: Tom says he bought several of these bulbs for as little as $2.50 each and installed them “all over the house.” While the lights don’t come on if the room is already lit by sunlight, they do turn on at night when he walks into any room. After a few minutes, the lights turn off by themselves without having to flip a single switch along the way.

Why it works: Tom, 78, says this DIY project has provided convenience and safety by ensuring his nightly trips to the bathroom or kitchen are always lit so he doesn't trip and fall. Plus, it saves him both time and money.

“It never forgets to turn off the light when I am out of the room,” he says. “Before using these motion lights, I often left the lights on in the basement after doing the laundry. I'd have to make another trip down and up the stairs to turn it off. I am positive these lights have saved me money given their low initial cost and the frequency of use.”

Before you try it: Tom warns the motion sensor light bulbs may take some getting used to. While they remain on if they sense your presence, Tom says the bulbs sometimes turn off when he sits down for a while to do things like eat or read. But with a quick wave of his arm, they promptly turn back on. Although, some of his overnight guests have noted it’s “a little weird to have to wave your arm every five minutes in the bathroom.” —CM

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Back in January, a film student at the University of Alaska Fairbanks was arrested after he tore off and ate at least 57 pieces of AI-generated art from a campus gallery wall. The charges were later dropped, but the protest captured a broader clash playing out across campuses right now: Schools want students to learn to use AI tools, and pupils are resisting.

Some of the world’s most prestigious art schools—including the California Institute of the Arts and London’s Royal College of Art—told The Verge they now expect students to get fluent in generative AI tools. Not necessarily to use them, but to understand how they work, with the reasoning being that an artist might know how to handle oils and acrylics even if their actual medium of choice is, say, chewed gum. Classrooms are expanding to match this AI-friendly ethos: CalArts just launched the Chanel-funded Center for Artists and Technology, which offers courses in AI and machine learning. At Arizona State University, Black Eyed Peas frontman will​.i.​am is teaching an elective called “The Agentic Self” where students build personalized AI assistants that can critique their work, suggest ideas, and presumably inform them that their boom boom pow needs more bass. The message is clear: Adapt or get left behind.

And the pressure isn’t just institutional. The creative software that art students already rely on is in many cases pushing AI assistance whether they want it or not—tools that can generate parts of a photo you never took, fabricate a backing track from scratch, or extend a video clip past where the camera stopped. Tech’s ability to reshape how art is made isn’t new—the camera, after all, didn’t kill painting. But a camera also doesn’t ingest every painting ever made to spit out its photograph, which is part of the tension art students are chewing on. Some of them, literally. —WK

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