"While Apple's commitment to privacy has long been celebrated, its cautious approach to collecting user data "
Its criminal theft and abuse of user data, as evident by its iCloud usage terms.
"AI" should really be a reference to algorithms that can solve general problems. What Cook is talking about is more like "machine learning," narrow special purpose algorithms. You can use the same basis for either, but at some point there is a distinct divergence in ability. This is one interesting thing about Tesla robots, they use a generalized approach for everything, whereas other companies create a specialized algorithms for moving the wrist, etc.
Modern Apple's gear is "pretty good" (but far from the best) for "AI," but they aren't offering anything like ChatGPT yet. It'll likely be baked into Siri.
We are still far from General AI. Current AIs are astonishing but only until they fail, such as a car killing its driver when confusing a white lorry with a cloud or not recognising a STOP sign with dots.