Apple CEO says the company doesn't want to ship AI for AI's sake
Apple CEO John Ternus defended the company's position on artificial intelligence in an interview with Wired. He said what matters is building products people truly love.
John Ternus, chief executive of the US technology company Apple, defended the company's stance on artificial intelligence (AI) in an interview with Steven Levy of Wired magazine. The topic matters because Apple has often been described as lagging in AI over the past couple of years, and the technology is central to its upcoming products.
Apple delayed the release of a more powerful version of its Siri voice assistant. That version finally launched this summer.
Ternus's position
Ternus, a longtime Apple executive, officially became CEO at the beginning of September. In the interview he acknowledged that "everyone has an opinion" but said, "I really like where we're at."
He stated that Apple will absolutely use AI in its new products, but stressed that the company does not want to ship it for the technology's own sake. According to him, when it is done right, people will not need to think about whether a feature was enabled by AI or by more traditional software. What matters, he said, is whether Apple has built something people really love.
Agents and apps
Levy asked whether AI might affect Apple and its ecosystem more dramatically, with agents potentially making apps unnecessary. Ternus replied that this could make life very easy, but that creating products is a deeply human and personal thing that the company loves to do.
