every time I I feel like visiting the Apple Park campus a tour i did It was several months before construction was completed, when there was dust and mud on the terrazzo floors where lush vegetation now grows. was my guide Tim CookCEO of Apple. With the pride of an owner, he told me about the $5 billion circular colossus, explaining that committing to the new complex was a “100-year decision.”
Today I return to the ring – full of energy seven years after it opened – to see Cook again. The tech world is at a turning point. The most powerful companies will either falter or preserve their dominance for decades. We're here to discuss Cook's big move in this high-stakes environment: the imminent release of Apple Intelligence, the company's first significant offering in white-hot territory. Generative AISome people consider it delayed. All year long, Apple's competitors have been generating buzz, dazzling investors and dominating the news cycle with their chatbotsWhile the world's most valuable company (as I write) was showing off an expensive, bulky augmented-reality headset. Apple needs to get AI right. After all, corporations are less likely to survive a century than buildings.
Cook did not panic. Like his predecessor Steve Jobs, he does not believe that first is best. “Classic Apple,” as he calls it, enters the raucous field of first-movers and, with a strong sense of novelty versus utility, unveils products that make the latest technologies seem relatable and even sexy. Also make. think back how to ipod Digital music reconsideredIt wasn't the first MP3 player, but its compactness, ease of use, and integration with an online store got people excited about a new way to consume their tunes.
Photograph: Joe Pugliese
Cook also argues that Apple has always been preparing for an AI revolution. Also in 2018, he tapped Google's top AI manager, John Giannandrea, for a rare expansion to the company's senior vice president rank. Then he shut down the long-running smart-car program (an open secret never publicly acknowledged by Apple) and used the company's machine-learning talent to build AI into its software products. Did.
In June, Apple announced the results: a layer of AI for its entire product line. Cook also struck a deal with OpenAI, the gold standard in chatbots, to give its users access to ChatGPIT. I got some demos of what they were planning to reveal, including a tool to create custom emojis with verbal cues and an easy-to-use AI image generator called Image Playground. (I had not yet tested Apple's revival of Siri, the weak AI agent.)
Perhaps what sets Apple's AI apart – at least according to Apple – is the focus on privacy, which is a hallmark of the Cook regime. AI tools, which are running on the latest iPhones and relatively recent Macs via software updates, will largely run on the device itself—you won't send your data to the cloud. Cook assured that calculations for more complex AI tasks take place in secure areas of Apple's data centers.
Another thing I'm reminded of upon returning to the ring is how adept Cook is at communicating the consequences of his big decisions, from the Apple Watch to the bet on custom silicon chips that sparked innovations that fueled Apple phones and laptops. . (And that's not to mention decisions that didn't come to fruition, like the billion-dollar smart-car project.) When he strolls into the conference room where we're meeting, I know Cook will be cautiously cordial, talking about his Alabama. Will demonstrate the etiquette developed during. As a boy, he calmly extolled the virtues of Apple's products and shrugged off criticisms of his extremely powerful company. (And when asked to comment on the election results that followed our conversation, he decided to keep his thoughts to himself.) Steve Jobs would come to a reporter like rain in Buenaventura, and deliver his message aggressively. Were; Cook shrouds his interlocutors in a light mist and gives a bemused assessment of his company's efforts.
Of course, the final evaluation will come from users. But if 40 years of covering Apple has taught me anything, it's this: Should this first iteration of AI fall short, an unrepentant Cook will appear at a pre-taped keynote in the future, Joe will release a new version he calls “the best Apple Intelligence yet.” Banana.” Despite all the pressure, Tim Cook never lets you see him break a sweat.