WIRED at present shared in an in-depth interview with Apple CEO Tim Cook, asking questions on AI, Vision Pro gross sales, pre-recorded keynotes, and extra.
The wide-ranging interview covers Apple’s pivot towards AI expertise, together with what Apple Intelligence options Cook finds most helpful, Apple’s partnership with OpenAI, and the environmental influence of AI. For instance, WIRED requested Cook about OpenAI’s goal to attain synthetic common intelligence (AGI), full human-level AI software program that might be capable to study, perceive, and apply information throughout many domains, and carry out duties they weren’t particularly skilled for.
Right now the expertise is nice sufficient the place we will ship it to folks and alter their lives, and that is what we’re targeted on. We’ll hold pulling the string and see the place it takes us.
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[AGI is] a dialogue that we’ll proceed to have.
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There’s a lot extraordinary profit for humanity. Are there some issues it’s important to have guardrails on? Of course. We’re very deeply thoughtful about issues that we do and do not do. I hope that others are as properly. AGI itself is a methods away, at a minimal. We’ll type out alongside the way in which what the guardrails must be in such an atmosphere.
Cook added that Apple has by no means thought-about charging a price for Apple Intelligence, viewing it as a elementary characteristic like multitouch. He mentioned Apple sees “the smartphone lasting a really very long time,” regardless of the emergence of AI-driven gadgets. Asked if he was involved concerning the period of time customers spend utilizing smartphones, Cook responded:
I fear about folks endlessly scrolling. That’s the explanation we do issues like Screen Time, to attempt to information folks. We assist folks placing limits on themselves, just like the variety of notifications you get. We do lots of issues within the parental controls space as properly. My elementary perception is, if you happen to’re your cellphone greater than you’re wanting in any individual’s eyes, that is an issue.
Addressing studies that the Apple Vision Pro has not met gross sales expectations, Cook mentioned:
It’s an early adopter product, for individuals who need tomorrow’s expertise at present. Those persons are shopping for it, and the ecosystem is flourishing. The final take a look at for us is the ecosystem. I do not know if you happen to’re utilizing it very a lot, however I’m on there on a regular basis. I see new apps on a regular basis.
WIRED additionally requested Cook if the Vision Pro is finally headed towards mixed-reality glasses like Meta and Snap:
Yes, it is a development over time by way of what occurs with type elements. AR is a big deal. With Vision Pro, we have progressed to what’s clearly probably the most superior expertise we have ever executed, and I feel probably the most superior expertise on the earth by way of electronics issues. We’ll see the place it goes.
Cook answered questions on Apple’s transfer into client instruments for medical expertise on the Apple Watch and AirPods, and alluded to how the the corporate is researching AI to research biometric knowledge in actual time:
I’m not going to announce something at present. But we have now analysis happening. We’re pouring all of ourselves in right here, and we work on issues which are years within the making. We had been engaged on listening to a very long time earlier than we obtained it dialed in to the place we felt comfy transport it.
In addition, WIRED queried if Apple will ever return to dwell shows:
During Covid we realized the viewers is primarily on-line. Very few folks can match within the theater, and we wished to have extra folks engaged within the announcement itself. You can do this much more productively on tape than you possibly can dwell due to the transitions on stage and so forth.
However, Cook admitted “I do miss it. I do miss it.” He mentioned that he will get requested about how lengthy he sees himself remaining Apple’s CEO “now greater than I used to,” explaining:
…I’ll do it till the voice in my head says, “It’s time,” after which I’ll go and concentrate on what the following chapter seems like. But it is arduous to think about life with out Apple, as a result of my life has been wrapped up on this firm since 1998. It’s the overwhelming majority of my grownup life. And so I like it.
Cook additionally answered questions on Apple’s resolution so as to add the Camera Control to the iPhone 16, working at Apple Park, the rising regulatory scrutiny the corporate faces, and Apple’s legacy. See WIRED‘s full interview for extra of Cook’s responses.
