Post Opinions columnist Josh Tyrangiel sat down with Apple CEO Tim Cook on Monday in Cupertino, Calif., just after the company unveiled its new AI tech, Apple Intelligence. This conversation was condensed and edited for clarity.
Tim Cook: I think they’re going to save time. Things are going to become more efficient. If you think about Siri as an example, you can now have a conversation with Siri. It can perform essentially multiple steps with one request, where today it takes multiple requests for that to occur. Writing tools: I get so many emails, and I realize everybody’s not on email, but everybody writes. And to have an assistant proofread to make things more professional or more entertaining, or whatever you want to do, is a big thing. The idea that it’s private, I think, is a very big idea in today’s world. People want to know in some kind of way that [AI] is personal to them, but also private. And these two things generally haven’t gone together very well. We found a way to thread the needle.
Tyrangiel: You’ve talked about the bedrock values of Apple since you got in the CEO’s chair. Of all the products and software that have been made under your watch, has AI tested those values more than anything else?
Cook: Not tested it. We went into this saying, “These are our values, and we can’t veer from them.” And we took the time and the depth of thinking to come out with a product that we’re proud of. We knew that we had to do things outside of the device because of the size of the language models that we’re working with, so we needed to have a level of invention on the cloud. And fortunately, we were able to build it upon things that we had, like Apple silicon.
Tyrangiel: Did you take any special delight in calling it Apple Intelligence, as opposed to artificial intelligence?
Cook: (smiles) It seemed sort of a logical conclusion after looking at so many names. At least for me, I can tell you it wasn’t a riff off of artificial intelligence. It was sort of calling it what it is. I’m sure a lot will be said about it, but it’s probably not as it appears.
Tyrangiel: What’s your confidence that Apple Intelligence will not hallucinate?
Cook: It’s not 100 percent. But I think we have done everything that we know to do, including thinking very deeply about the readiness of the technology in the areas that we’re using it in. So I am confident it will be very high quality. But I’d say in all honesty that’s short of 100 percent. I would never claim that it’s 100 percent.
Tyrangiel: Apple partnering with OpenAI is going to be viewed as an endorsement at a moment when OpenAI could probably use an endorsement. What makes you think OpenAI and Sam Altman specifically are trustworthy partners who share Apple’s values?
Cook: They’ve done some things on privacy that I like. They’re not tracking IP addresses and some of the things like that that we’re very keen on not happening. I think they’re a pioneer in the area, and today they have the best model. And I think our customers want something with world knowledge some of the time. So we considered everything and everyone. And obviously we’re not stuck on one person forever or something. We’re integrating with other people as well. But they’re first, and I think today it’s because they’re best.
Tyrangiel: Over the past 90 days, as things came out that raised questions about Altman’s judgment or the trustworthiness of the product, did you have any qualms that made you reconsider?
Cook: We looked at everything and considered everything, and concluded that it was in the best interest of our users to select them.
Tyrangiel: What are the best and worst things about President Biden’s AI executive order and the AI Senate road map?
Cook: I wouldn’t want to critique either one of them. I would say that, in looking at it from our perspective, the thing that needs to be done as foundational to any kind of regulation is a comprehensive privacy regulation. And it needs to be significant. Once that’s in place, it may become more obvious what else needs to be done, but at the root of everything is privacy. We’ve been advocating for years on comprehensive privacy legislation, and it’s even more paramount in an AI world than pre-AI.
Tyrangiel: What’s your advice for journalism companies trying to navigate the wave of AI? Should they license content to one of the large language models? Should they wait?
Cook: That’s a really good question. I think licensing is really smart for some people. And it’s not clear — short of not getting a good deal — why it’s bad to do. Journalism, as you know well, is a challenging industry, and so the idea that you can monetize it in another way I think is positive.
Tyrangiel: I know people are concerned that the previous run-in with this model from the social media companies did not work out great.
Cook: Yeah, but the models are different. One you’re getting paid for. The other one didn’t really pay.
Tyrangiel: The science fiction writer Douglas Adams said that any tech that exists when you’re a kid is just a natural part of the way the world works. Anything invented when you’re between the ages of 15 and 35 is exciting and revolutionary. And anything that comes along after age 35 violates the natural order of things. You and I are both in that last category —
Cook: I’m more in it than you are!
Tyrangiel: I’m curious if, even as the head of civilization’s most successful technology company, you find something about AI strange or unnatural?
Cook: No, I don’t. I think it’s an inevitable outcome of so many other innovations. Machine learning has been around forever. This is not a new thing, exactly. It’s new in that people are talking about it on the streets and so forth. But it’s not new. You want people in it that are deep thinkers and put some rails around it. But I think it’s an inevitability.
Tyrangiel: Is there something about working with AI that gives you joy?
Cook: I get excited about helping people do things faster, better, higher quality. Anything that improves human existence. And I think AI can do that, again, subject to keeping the rails on it appropriately. So I’m a fan. I don’t have my head stuck in the sand. I know that there’s also a parade of horribles that can occur, which is why we’re committed to being thoughtful in the space.
