I think the above person was making a commentary about the things Apple chooses not to do. Apple strategy is often to be intentionally last to market, after the dust settles.
The on-device ML models that are being used by Google and Apple are both quite new and in active development.
Many of Apple's most successful products have shipped years or even a decade after their competitors. They have tried using first-mover advantage in the past but typically fail when using that strategy.