Every time I visit the Apple Park campus, my mind flashes to a tour I took months before construction was finished, when there was dust on the terrazzo floors and mud where lush vegetation now flourishes. My guide was Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. With a proprietor’s pride, he ushered me through the $5 billion circular colossus, explaining that committing to the new campus was a “100-year decision.”
每次我参观苹果公园园区，脑海中总会闪现出建设完工前几个月的一次参观情景，那时水磨石地板上还蒙着灰尘，如今郁郁葱葱的植被处还是一片泥泞。我的向导是苹果公司首席执行官蒂姆·库克。他带着主人的自豪，引领我穿行于这座耗资 50 亿美元的圆形巨构建筑，解释说决定建设新园区是一个“百年决策”。
Today I am returning to the Ring—pulsing with energy seven years after it opened—to see Cook again. The tech world is at an inflection point. The mightiest companies will either stumble or secure their dominance for decades. We are here to discuss Cook’s big move in this high-stakes environment: the impending release of Apple Intelligence, the company’s first significant offering in the white-hot field of generative AI. Some consider it belated. All year, Apple’s competitors have been gaining buzz, dazzling investors, and dominating the news cycle with their chatbots, while the world’s most valuable company (as I write) was showing off an expensive, bulky augmented-reality headset. Apple has to get AI right. Corporations, after all, are less likely than buildings to stand proud for a century.
今天，我重返这片场地——七年前它开业时便充满活力——再次与库克会面。科技界正处于一个转折点。最强大的公司要么会跌倒，要么将巩固其数十年的主导地位。我们在此探讨库克在这一高风险环境中的重大举措：即将发布的 Apple Intelligence，这是苹果在炙手可热的生成式 AI 领域首次推出的重要产品。有人认为此举姗姗来迟。一年来，苹果的竞争对手凭借其聊天机器人赢得了关注，令投资者眼花缭乱，并主导了新闻周期，而全球最有价值的公司（在我撰写本文时）却在展示一款昂贵、笨重的增强现实头戴设备。苹果必须正确把握 AI。毕竟，与建筑物相比，企业更难屹立百年而不倒。
Cook didn’t panic. Like his predecessor Steve Jobs, he doesn’t believe that first is best. “Classic Apple,” as he puts it, enters a cacophonous field of first-movers and, with a strong grasp of novelty versus utility, unveils products that make the latest technologies relatable and even sexy. Think back to how the iPod rethought digital music. It wasn’t the first MP3 player, but its compactness, ease of use, and integration with an online store thrilled people with a new way to consume their tunes.
库克并未惊慌。与他的前任史蒂夫·乔布斯一样，他不认为“第一”就是“最好”。正如他所言，“经典的苹果”进入了一个喧嚣的先行者领域，凭借对新颖性与实用性的深刻把握，推出让最新技术变得平易近人甚至充满魅力的产品。回想一下 iPod 如何重新定义数字音乐。它并非首款 MP3 播放器，但其小巧的体积、易用性以及与在线商店的整合，以一种全新的方式让人们为之兴奋，享受音乐。
Cook also contends that Apple has been preparing for the AI revolution all along. As far back as 2018, he poached Google’s top AI manager, John Giannandrea, for a rare expansion of the company’s senior vice president ranks. Then he pulled the plug on a long-running smart-car program (an open secret never publicly acknowledged by Apple) and marshaled the company’s machine-learning talent to build AI into its software products.
库克还坚称，苹果一直在为人工智能革命做准备。早在 2018 年，他就从谷歌挖来了顶尖的人工智能经理约翰·詹南德雷亚，这是公司高层副总裁职位的罕见扩充。随后，他叫停了一个长期运行的智能汽车项目（一个从未公开承认的公开秘密），并集结公司的机器学习人才，将人工智能融入其软件产品中。
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In June, Apple announced the results: a layer of AI for its whole product line. Cook had also brokered a deal with the gold standard in chatbots, OpenAI, so that his users could have access to ChatGPT. I’d gotten a few demos of what they were planning to reveal, including a tool to create custom emoji with verbal prompts and an easy-to-use AI picture generator called Image Playground. (I hadn’t yet tested the revivification of Siri, Apple’s lackluster AI agent.)
六月，苹果公布了成果：为其全线产品增添了一层 AI。库克还与聊天机器人的黄金标准——OpenAI 达成了协议，使得用户能够访问 ChatGPT。我已预览了他们计划展示的几项功能，包括一款能通过语音提示创建自定义表情符号的工具，以及一个名为“图像游乐场”的简易 AI 图片生成器。（我尚未测试 Siri 的复兴，即苹果表现平平的 AI 助手。）
Perhaps what most distinguishes Apple’s AI—at least according to Apple—is its focus on privacy, a hallmark of the Cook regime. The AI tools, which are rolling out through software updates on the latest iPhone and relatively recent Macs, will largely run on the device itself—you don’t send your data to the cloud. The computation for more complicated AI tasks, Cook assures, occurs in secure regions of Apple’s data centers.
或许，最能让苹果的人工智能——至少根据苹果的说法——脱颖而出的，是其对隐私的专注，这是库克时代的标志。这些通过最新 iPhone 和相对较新的 Mac 上的软件更新逐步推出的 AI 工具，主要在设备本地运行——你的数据不会被发送到云端。库克保证，更复杂的 AI 任务的计算会在苹果数据中心的保密区域进行。
Another thing I’m reminded of on my return to the Ring is how skillful Cook is at touting the results of his big decisions, from the Apple Watch to his bet on custom silicon chips, which unleashed innovations that boost Apple phones and laptops. (And not mentioning decisions that didn’t pan out, like that multibillion-dollar smart-car project.) When he strolls into the conference room where we’re meeting, I know Cook will be meticulously cordial, displaying manners honed during his Alabama boyhood, while calmly hyperbolizing the virtues of Apple’s products and fending off criticisms of his very powerful company. (And when asked for comment on the election results, which came in after our talk, he chose to keep his views to himself.) Steve Jobs would come at a journalist like the rain in Buenaventura, aggressively pitching his message; Cook envelopes his interlocutors in a gentle mist and confides awed assessments of his company’s efforts.
重返苹果园区，另一件让我印象深刻的是库克如何巧妙地宣扬其重大决策的成果，从 Apple Watch 到押注定制硅芯片，这些决策释放了推动苹果手机和笔记本电脑创新的能量。（对于那些未能如愿的决策，如那项耗资数十亿美元的智能汽车项目，则只字不提。）当他走进我们见面的会议室时，我知道库克将表现得极为礼貌周到，展现出他在阿拉巴马州童年时期磨练出的礼仪，同时冷静地夸大苹果产品的优点，并巧妙地回避对其强大公司的批评。（当被问及在我们谈话后出炉的选举结果时，他选择保持沉默，不发表个人观点。）史蒂夫·乔布斯会像布埃纳文图拉的暴雨般向记者强势推销自己的理念；而库克则如和煦的细雨，轻柔地包裹着对话者，并透露出对其公司努力的敬畏评价。
The ultimate assessments, of course, will come from users. But if 40 years of covering Apple has taught me anything, it is this: Should this first iteration of AI fall short, an unrepentant Cook will show up at a future pretaped keynote hailing a new version as “the best Apple Intelligence we’ve ever built.” Despite all the pressure, Tim Cook never lets you see him sweat.
当然，最终的评判将来自用户。但若 40 年报道苹果的经历教会了我什么，那就是：倘若这首次 AI 迭代未能尽如人意，毫不悔改的库克将在未来预录的发布会上，自豪地推出新版本，并称之为“我们有史以来打造的最卓越苹果智能”。尽管压力重重，蒂姆·库克从不让你看到他流露出一丝紧张。
This interview has been edited for length and clarity, combining on-camera and off-camera portions. Check out WIRED’s YouTube channel for the video.
本次采访已为篇幅和清晰度进行了编辑，结合了摄像机内外的部分内容。请访问 WIRED 的 YouTube 频道观看视频。
When did you first understand generative AI was going to be a very big deal?
你是什么时候第一次意识到生成式 AI 将会成为一个非常重要的大事件？
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I wouldn’t say there was an aha moment. It built like a wave, or like rolling thunder. Back in 2017 we built a neural engine into our products. It was already apparent that AI and machine learning were huge. It became obvious that we had to divert lots of people to it, that it would be a new era for our products.
我不会说有一个“啊哈”时刻。它像波浪一样逐渐形成，或如滚滚雷声。早在 2017 年，我们就将神经引擎融入到产品中。当时已经很明显，人工智能和机器学习领域极为重要。我们清楚地意识到，必须调动大量人力投入其中，这将开启我们产品的新纪元。
How did you figure out what you’d build with it?
你是如何确定要利用它构建什么的？
We wanted to innovate in such a way that things would be personal and private. We began to think about the intersection of those things in a way that was classic Apple—how do you deliver this technology so that it benefits people and enhances their lives?
我们希望以一种既个性化又私密的方式进行创新。我们开始以经典的苹果方式思考这些事物的交汇点——如何传递这项技术，使其惠及人们并提升他们的生活？
In your presentations you use Apple Intelligence almost as a synonym for AI. Do you think people fear AI?
在你的演示中，你几乎将 Apple Intelligence 用作 AI 的同义词。你认为人们会害怕 AI 吗？
I think that does exist. We batted around names for everything and decided on Apple Intelligence. It wasn’t a pun off of artificial intelligence. In hindsight, it seems so straightforward.
我认为确实存在。我们为所有事物都起了名字，最终决定用“苹果智能”。这并非是人工智能的双关语。事后看来，这似乎非常直接明了。
Some companies charge for AI-enhanced services. Did you consider that?
有些公司对 AI 增强服务收费。你考虑过这一点吗？
We never talked about charging for it. We view it sort of like multitouch, which enabled the smartphone revolution and the modern tablet.
我们从未讨论过为此收费。我们将其视为类似于多点触控技术，后者推动了智能手机革命和现代平板电脑的发展。
You’ve personally been using Apple Intelligence for a while. What has been most useful for you?
你个人已经使用 Apple Intelligence 一段时间了。对你来说，最有用的是什么？
We’re an email-based company, and I get enormous numbers from users, employees, partners, and so forth. Having it summarize author responses is a game changer, and having it prioritize things for you so you’re not doing your usual triage. Then, of course, there are fun things like the Image Playground.
我们是一家基于电子邮件的公司，我从用户、员工、合作伙伴等处收到了大量信息。能够自动总结作者回复，这彻底改变了游戏规则，还能为你优先处理事务，这样你就不必进行常规的筛选。当然，还有一些有趣的功能，比如图像游乐场。
I’ve heard you say that Apple Intelligence could make you funnier, which seems strange.
我听你说过苹果智能能让你更有趣，这听起来很奇怪。
I think it can make you friendlier, which, in many ways, can be funnier as well.
我认为它能让你更友善，这在很多方面也能变得更有趣。
Having AI speak for people makes me wonder whether the nature of communication will degrade. If Apple Intelligence writes something funny, who’s being funny, the sender or the AI?
让 AI 替人说话，让我不禁思考沟通的本质是否会因此退化。如果苹果智能写出了什么有趣的东西，那么是谁在搞笑，是发送者还是 AI？
It’s still coming from you. It’s your thoughts and your perspective. You and I both remember the productivity that came from the advent of the personal computer. It was no longer you punching your calculator, you were doing something on a spreadsheet. It was no longer you at the typewriter, you were using a word processor. Logic Pro helps musicians create music, but they’re still the author.
它依然源自于你。这是你的思想和你的视角。你我都能记得个人电脑问世带来的生产力提升。不再是你在敲打计算器，而是在电子表格上操作。不再是你在打字机前，而是在使用文字处理器。Logic Pro 帮助音乐家创作音乐，但他们仍是创作者。
One of your demos involves a fictional recent graduate applying for a job. The cover letter is colloquial and somewhat sophomoric, but with Apple Intelligence a single click changes it to look like a savvy, smart person wrote it. If I’m a recruiter who hired that person, maybe I will feel tricked if they don’t live up to the professionalism of that letter.
你的一个演示涉及一位虚构的应届毕业生申请工作。求职信口语化且略显幼稚，但通过苹果智能技术，只需一键即可将其转变为看似精明干练的人所写。若我作为招聘者录用了此人，而他们未能达到信中展现的专业水准，我或许会感到受骗。
I don’t think so. By using the tool, it comes across as more polished. It’s still your decision to use the tool. It’s like you and I collaborating on something—one plus one can equal more than two, right?
我不这么认为。使用该工具后，效果显得更加精致。是否使用工具仍由你决定。就像你我合作某事一样——一加一可以大于二，对吧？
I guess the counterargument is that back in the early days of internet search, people complained that no one bothered to memorize dates anymore: “I don’t need to. I have a search engine!” So no one has to learn history—and now, how to write a professional letter.
我猜反驳的观点是，在互联网搜索的早期，人们抱怨说没人再费心去记日期了：“我不需要。我有搜索引擎！”所以没人需要学习历史——而现在，连如何写一封专业信函也不必学了。
These worries have been around for years. I remember when people felt like the calculator would fundamentally erode people’s math ability. Did it really, or did it make something more efficient?
这些担忧已经存在多年。我记得当人们觉得计算器会从根本上削弱人们的数学能力时。它真的做到了吗，还是让某些事情变得更高效了呢？
I used to know how to do long division. I don’t anymore.
我过去知道怎么做长除法，现在不记得了。
I haven’t forgotten. 我没有忘记。
Point to you. Another thing that strikes me about Apple Intelligence is that you already had a lot of information about us from our emails, our calendars, and other Apple products. To make Apple Intelligence useful, you stitch together all that information. That’s why privacy is so critical. Not many companies can do that, because they don’t have Apple’s ecosystem.
指向你。另一件让我对苹果智能印象深刻的事情是，你们已经从我们的电子邮件、日历以及其他苹果产品中获取了大量关于我们的信息。为了使苹果智能变得实用，你们将所有这些信息整合在一起。这就是为什么隐私如此关键。没有多少公司能做到这一点，因为他们没有苹果的生态系统。
We don’t look at it as the value of the ecosystem. It’s doing things to help people and make their lives better. And it clearly does that.
我们并不将其视为生态系统的价值。它所做的是帮助人们，让他们的生活更美好。而这显然做到了。
Will you open up Apple apps like Mail and Messages to other companies to use in their AI systems? How are you thinking about privacy there?
你会向其他公司开放苹果应用如邮件和信息，供他们在其 AI 系统中使用吗？你在这方面是如何考虑隐私问题的？
We’ll always consider the privacy implications. We don’t accept that there’s a trade-off between great privacy and great intelligence. Much of Apple Intelligence runs on the device, but for some users we need more powerful models. So we crafted private cloud compute that essentially has the same privacy and security as your device does. We just kept plugging at it until we came up with the right idea.
我们会始终考虑隐私的影响。我们不认为在出色的隐私保护和卓越的智能之间存在权衡。苹果的许多智能功能都在设备上运行，但对于某些用户，我们需要更强大的模型。因此，我们设计了具备与设备同等隐私和安全性的私有云计算。我们不断努力，直到找到正确的解决方案。
OK, let’s change gears a bit. Apple has been designing custom silicon to make its products more efficient and powerful. This seems to me an underappreciated part of Apple’s success in the past decade.
好的，让我们稍微转换一下话题。苹果一直在设计定制芯片，以使其产品更加高效和强大。在我看来，这是苹果过去十年成功中一个被低估的部分。
It’s a huge enabler. We’ve always believed that we should own the primary technologies that our products are built on. Steve talked about this. I’m not saying we’ve always done that, but we’ve always believed that, and it was always a journey to get there.
这是一个巨大的推动因素。我们始终坚信，我们应该掌握产品所基于的核心技术。史蒂夫曾谈到这一点。我并不是说我们总是做到了，但我们一直坚信这一点，而且这始终是一个不断努力的过程。
But there is one technology—world-knowledgeable large language models—that you’re outsourcing to OpenAI. When you announced the deal, it seemed framed as an initial arrangement. Is it inevitable that you will eventually build your own powerful LLMs?
但有一项技术——具备世界知识的大语言模型——你正在外包给 OpenAI。当你宣布这项合作时，它似乎被定位为一个初步安排。你是否最终会不可避免地构建自己的强大LLMs？
I wouldn’t want to predict. We felt that OpenAI was the pioneer and was ahead. We felt that some portion of our customers would want access to world knowledge [that Apple Intelligence doesn’t provide], and we wanted to integrate it in an elegant way that still respected people’s ability to choose whether they wanted to do that or not.
我不想预测。我们认为 OpenAI 是先驱并处于领先地位。我们觉得部分客户会希望访问全球知识（这是苹果智能所不具备的），我们希望以一种既优雅又尊重人们选择是否使用这种方式的方式来整合它。
I’m wondering whether there’s been a vibe shift in your relationship, even before you started using ChatGPT in your products. First Apple was going to have an observer on OpenAI’s board. Now you’re not. Recently it was rumored you were going to participate in their big investment round. You didn’t. Meanwhile, OpenAI has had some key employee departures, and the FTC is examining whether AI power is too concentrated. Has there been any cooling off?
我在想，在你开始在产品中使用 ChatGPT 之前，你们的关系是否已经发生了微妙的转变。起初，苹果打算在 OpenAI 的董事会中派驻观察员。现在没有了。最近有传闻说你们将参与他们的大规模投资轮，但你们没有。与此同时，OpenAI 出现了一些关键员工的离职，而联邦贸易委员会正在审查人工智能力量是否过于集中。是否出现了关系冷却的迹象？
There’s no truth behind that at all. And I would just say, our MO is not to go out and invest in a number of companies. It’s rare that we’ve ever done that. So it would be odd, an exception, for us to do that there.
这完全是无稽之谈。我只想说，我们的模式并不是四处投资多家公司。我们很少这样做。因此，在那里这样做对我们来说会显得很奇怪，是个例外。
So you never considered investing in OpenAI?
所以你从未考虑过投资 OpenAI？
I’m not going to say we never looked at it. I’m just saying that it would be a rare move on our part to do that. We did ARM back in the day. Who else did we do? We did one or two others.
我不会说我们从未考虑过它。我只是说，对我们来说，这样做是罕见的举动。我们当年确实做过 ARM。我们还做过谁？我们还做过一两个其他的。
ARM was pretty good. ARM 相当不错。
ARM was pretty good. [In 1990, Apple invested $3 million to own 30 percent of ARM—a stake that would be worth hundreds of millions of dollars. But more important, ARM was and is a critical chip supplier, most notably for the iPhone.]
ARM 相当不错。[1990 年，苹果投资 300 万美元持有 ARM 30%的股份——这一股份如今价值数亿美元。但更重要的是，ARM 一直是关键的芯片供应商，尤其对 iPhone 而言。]
One big difference between Apple and OpenAI is that they are obsessed with achieving AGI. You never hear that from Apple. Do you think AGI will happen?
苹果与 OpenAI 之间的一大区别在于，后者对实现 AGI（通用人工智能）有着执着的追求。你从未从苹果那里听到过这样的说法。你认为 AGI 会实现吗？
Right now the technology is good enough where we can deliver it to people and change their lives, and that’s what we’re focused on. We’ll keep pulling the string and see where it takes us.
目前，这项技术已经足够成熟，我们可以将其交付给人们，改变他们的生活，而这正是我们关注的重点。我们将继续推进，看看它能带我们走向何方。
If AGI does actually happen, how would that affect Apple?
如果通用人工智能真的实现，那将对苹果产生怎样的影响？
That’s a discussion that we’ll continue to have.
这是我们将继续讨论的话题。
When you’re thinking about things late at night, don’t you sometimes ask what it would mean if computers had superhuman intelligence?
夜深人静时思考问题，你是否偶尔会问，如果计算机拥有超人智能，那意味着什么？
Oh, of course. Not just for Apple, but for the world. There’s so much extraordinary benefit for humanity. Are there some things you have to have guardrails on? Of course. We’re very deeply considerate about things that we do and don’t do. I hope that others are as well. AGI itself is a ways away, at a minimum. We’ll sort out along the way what the guardrails need to be in such an environment.
哦，当然。不仅对苹果，而是对全世界。它为人类带来了太多非凡的益处。有些事情是否需要设置防护措施？当然需要。我们对于所做和不做的事情都深思熟虑。我希望其他人也是如此。通用人工智能（AGI）本身还有很长的路要走，至少目前如此。我们会在过程中逐步明确在这样的环境中需要什么样的防护措施。
Implementing generative AI puts a lot of stress on your infrastructure, requiring more power and more data centers. Does this present extra challenges to Apple’s goal to be carbon-neutral by 2030?
实施生成式人工智能对基础设施造成巨大压力，需要更多电力和更多数据中心。这是否给苹果 2030 年实现碳中和的目标带来了额外挑战？
More challenges, yes. But are we coming off the goal? No, definitely not. With more data centers, you use more renewable energy, and we’ve built that muscle now. Since 2015 our carbon footprint is down over half, while our net sales have gone up well over 50 percent. I feel very good about 2030.
更多挑战，是的。但我们偏离目标了吗？不，绝对没有。随着数据中心的增多，您使用更多的可再生能源，而我们现在已经具备了这种能力。自 2015 年以来，我们的碳足迹下降了一半以上，而净销售额增长了 50%以上。我对 2030 年充满信心。
So you won’t have to reactivate old nuclear plants or anything?
所以你不需要重新启用旧的核电站或任何设施？
I don’t see that. 我没看到那个。
Obviously, the iPhone has had an incredible impact on our lives. We like them so much that we can’t take our eyes off them. As the person who manufactures and sells them, do you worry that these devices have made us more distractible and ruined our ability to concentrate? In an informal study recently, teachers at elite institutions complained that their students struggle to read books.
显然，iPhone 对我们的生活产生了深远的影响。我们对它们如此着迷，以至于无法将视线从它们身上移开。作为制造和销售这些设备的人，你是否担心这些设备让我们变得更加容易分心，并破坏了我们集中注意力的能力？最近一项非正式研究中，一些精英院校的教师抱怨说，他们的学生难以阅读书籍。
I worry about people endlessly scrolling. That’s the reason we do things like Screen Time, to try to guide people. We support people putting limits on themselves, like the number of notifications you get. We do a lot of things in the parental controls area as well. My fundamental belief is, if you’re looking at your phone more than you’re looking in somebody’s eyes, that’s a problem.
我担心人们无休止地刷屏。这就是我们推出“屏幕使用时间”等功能的原因，试图引导人们。我们支持人们为自己设定限制，比如接收通知的数量。我们在家长控制领域也做了很多工作。我的基本信念是，如果你看手机的时间多于看别人的眼睛，那就是个问题。
Steve Jobs instructed you not to imagine what product decisions he would make, but to do what’s best. Still, considering how much he hated buttons, did you look skyward and apologize to him for adding a button to the iPhone 16?
史蒂夫·乔布斯曾指示你不要猜测他会做出什么产品决策，而是要做出最佳选择。尽管如此，考虑到他对按钮的厌恶程度，你是否曾仰望天空，为在 iPhone 16 上添加按钮而向他道歉？
I don’t know what Steve would have thought. Of course, I worked with him a long time and have my own views. But what has happened is that people have been taking so many pictures and videos with the iPhone, it was important to make it simple and elegant for them. So important that it merited the camera control.
Let’s talk about your wearable display, the Vision Pro. Reports are that it hasn’t sold at the level that you folks expected. What happened?
It’s an early adopter product, for people who want tomorrow’s technology today. Those people are buying it, and the ecosystem is flourishing. The ultimate test for us is the ecosystem. I don’t know if you’re using it very much, but I’m on there all the time. I see new apps all the time.
I heard that Stevie Wonder had a demo of the Vision Pro and loved it. How did that work?
He's a friend of Apple and it's great to get feedback from Stevie. And of course his artistry is just unparalleled. One of the common threads running through Apple over time is that we don't bolt on accessibility at the end of the design process. It's embedded. So getting his feedback was key.
Meta and Snap are leading us to mixed-reality glasses that we’d wear continually. Is the bigger, heavier Vision Pro ultimately headed that way?
Yes, it’s a progression over time in terms of what happens with form factors. AR is a huge deal. With Vision Pro, we’ve progressed to what is clearly the most advanced technology we’ve ever done, and I think the most advanced technology in the world in terms of electronics problems. We’ll see where it goes.
Apple has created a lot of consumer tools for medical technology. What’s the strategy for biological metrics and prosthetics?
It’s clear to me that if you zoom out way into the future, and you look back and ask what Apple’s biggest contribution was, it will be in the health area. That’s what I really believe. When we started pulling that string with the Apple Watch, it was a cascade of events. We started with something simple, like monitoring your heart rate, and then figured out we could pick up heart signals to get to an EKG and an AFib determination. Now we are monitoring sleep apnea. I’ve gotten so many notes over time from people who would have not survived had it not been for the alert on their wrist.
Apple plans to give AirPods the ability to correct for hearing loss. I bet the makers of expensive hearing aids are freaking out.
It’s not about competing against hearing aids on the market. It’s about trying to convince people who have hearing loss to use their AirPods. The vast majority of people with hearing issues have not been diagnosed. For some people, hearing aids have a stigma, and we can counter that with AirPods. And we can have people diagnose themselves. It’s the democratization of health.
If Apple devices began using AI to analyze all that biometric data in real time, you might diagnose conditions way before a doctor could. Are you conducting experiments in that vein, to flag dangerous medical conditions?
I’m not going to announce anything today. But we have research going on. We’re pouring all of ourselves in here, and we work on things that are years in the making. We were working on hearing a long time before we got it dialed in to where we felt comfortable shipping it.
You just announced the iPhone 16. How long can this string go—will there be an iPhone 30? Won’t some AI device replace them soon?
We see the smartphone lasting a very long time. There will be more innovation. And obviously you look at the first iPhone that shipped versus the iPhone 16, they’re totally different, right?
We’re doing this interview at Apple Park, which is now seven years old. Have you been surprised by anything that couldn’t have been anticipated when it was just blueprints?
It’s promoted collaboration even more than I thought. That was a key component of the design, but there are so many places here where you just unexpectedly run into people. In the cafeteria, at the coffee bar, outside when you’re going across the pathway. Also, there's a connection here to Steve that is incredible and very deep. We have the theater named after him and think about him all the time, but I can feel him in other spaces too.
You mention the Steve Jobs Theater, which was designed with product keynotes in mind. Now you launch products with pretaped videos. Will you ever go back to live presentations?
During Covid we learned the audience is primarily online. Very few people can fit in the theater, and we wanted to have more people engaged in the announcement itself. You can do that a lot more productively on tape than you can live because of the transitions on stage and so forth.
But don’t you miss the vibe of a live keynote?
I do miss it. I do miss it.
The DOJ and 19 states, along with the District of Columbia, filed suit against Apple this year. One assistant attorney general charged that Apple was “a self-interested monopolist.” There are also government suits against other Big Tech companies. Do you think that the public, as well as the government, has shifted its view of Apple and other Big Tech companies?
When you talk about something such as alleging some kind of conduct, you should talk about a specific company and what is the conduct, and not group things together.
Granted, everyone’s got their own lawsuit. What’s the response to the one against Apple?
It’s completely misguided as to what we have done. Our users know this. We always put ourselves in the shoes of the user and ask what is best for them, what is best for their privacy, what is best for their security. That’s the story. We’ll tell it to a judge and see how that goes.
How long do you see yourself as CEO of Apple?
I get asked that question now more than I used to.
Why is that?
As I age, as my hair turns gray. I love this place, Steven. It's a privilege of a lifetime to be here. And I'll do it until the voice in my head says, “It's time,” and then I'll go and focus on what the next chapter looks like. But it's hard to imagine life without Apple, because my life has been wrapped up in this company since 1998. It's the overwhelming majority of my adult life. And so I love it.
You’ve said that it’s up to others to determine your legacy, but what do you think Apple’s legacy is?
It’s up to others to determine that as well. But I think Apple will be remembered for delivering great products that changed the world, that really improved people’s lives. Our users feel it when they go into an Apple Store. They feel it when they use the products. I got so many messages when the hurricane hit in North Carolina and people discovered that they had the ability to SOS and to message people when the cellular network was down. This reminds people of why we do what we do and how much we care. That will be Apple’s legacy.
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