Every time me as I visit the Apple Park campus, I think back to a trip I took a few months before construction was completed, when there was dust on the terrazzo floors and mud where lush vegetation now blooms. My guide was Tim Cook, CEO of Apple. With the pride of ownership, he walked me through the $5 billion circular behemoth, explaining that committing to the up-to-date campus was “a 100-year decision.”
Today I return to the Circle – pulsating with energy seven years after its opening – to meet Cook again. The world of technology is at a turning point. The most powerful companies will either stumble or assert their dominance for decades. We’re here to discuss Cook’s essential move in this high-stakes environment: the upcoming launch of Apple Intelligence, the company’s first significant offering in the hot-button field of generative artificial intelligence. Some people think this is overdue. Throughout the year, Apple’s competitors made waves, dazzled investors, and dominated the news cycle with their chatbots, while the most valuable company in the world (as I write) showed off an pricey, bulky augmented reality headset. Apple must take good care of artificial intelligence. After all, corporations are less likely than buildings to be proud of for a century.
Cook didn’t panic. Like his predecessor Steve Jobs, he does not believe that first is best. “Classic Apple,” as he puts it, steps into the cacophonous field of pioneers and, with a powerful blend of newness and utility, presents products that make the latest technologies recognizable and even sexy. Think back to how the iPod changed digital music again. It wasn’t the first MP3 player, but its compactness, ease of employ, and online store integration delighted people with a up-to-date way to consume music.
Photo: Joe Pugliese
Cook also claims that Apple has been preparing for the artificial intelligence revolution all along. Back in 2018, he coaxed Google’s top artificial intelligence manager, John Giannandrea, into a scarce expansion of the company’s senior vice president positions. It then ended its long-running sharp car program (a printing secret Apple has never publicly acknowledged) and used the company’s machine learning talents to build artificial intelligence into its software products.
In June, Apple announced the results: an artificial intelligence layer for its entire product line. Cook also brokered a deal with the gold standard of chatbots, OpenAI, for its users to access ChatGPT. I got a few demos of what they planned to reveal, including a custom emoji maker with word prompts and an easy-to-use AI image generator called Image Playground. (I haven’t yet tested reviving Siri, Apple’s frail AI agent.)
Perhaps what sets Apple’s AI apart most – at least according to Apple – is the focus on privacy that has been a hallmark of the Cook regime. The AI tools that are rolled out through software updates to the latest iPhones and relatively up-to-date Macs will largely run on the device itself — you’re not sending data to the cloud. Cook ensures that computation for more intricate AI tasks takes place in secure regions of Apple’s data centers.
Another thing I’m reminded of back on the Ring is how skillfully Cook touts the results of his gigantic decisions, from the Apple Watch to a bet on custom silicon chips that unleashed innovations that improved Apple’s phones and laptops. (And that’s not to mention the decisions that didn’t work out, like that multibillion-dollar sharp car project.) When he walks into the conference room where we meet, I know Cook will be unusually cordial, displaying the mannerisms honed during his visit to his childhood Alabama, calmly exaggerating advantages of Apple products and fending off criticism of his powerful company. (And when asked for comment on the election results that came after our conversation, he chose to keep his views to himself). Steve Jobs pounced on the journalist like rain in Buenaventura, aggressively presenting his message; Cook shrouds his interlocutors in a gentle fog and admiringly shares with them his assessments of his company’s efforts.
The final judgment will of course come from the users. But if 40 years of working on Apple has taught me anything, it’s this: if the first version of AI proves to be inadequate, an unrepentant Cook will appear on a pre-recorded keynote in the future, praising the up-to-date version as “the best Apple intelligence we’ve ever made.” built.” Despite all the pressure, Tim Cook never lets you see him sweat.