Apple Intelligence has been seven years in the making, says Cook
In a new interview, CEO Tim Cook says that Apple began looking into what became Apple Intelligence in 2017, just as Apple Park was opening.
Credit: Apple
It's been repeatedly claimed that Apple is behind the industry on artificial intelligence, and that's just as often been refuted. Now before it became known as Apple Intelligence, Tim Cook says that AI crept up on Apple -- but crept up a long time ago.
"I wouldn't say there was an aha moment," he told Steven Levy in Wired. "It built like a wave, or like rolling thunder."
"Back in 2017 we built a neural engine into our products," he continued. "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."
It was 2018 when Apple hired away Google's head of AI, John Giannandrea, and he has said that machine learning soon permeated everything. But it wasn't until 2024 that Apple announced Apple Intelligence.
Following the announcement at WWDC, Apple debuted certain Apple Intelligence features in iOS 18.1. Much more is due in iOS 18.2, and it is intended to continue improving at least throughout 2025.
Making AI useful but private
Saying that Apple "wanted to innovate in such a way that things would be personal and private," Cook reveals that there was a debate before settling on the name Apple Intelligence. But he also says that there was no debate and not even a discussion about charging users for AI tools.
"We never talked about charging for it," says Cook. "We view it sort of like multitouch, which enabled the smartphone revolution and the modern tablet."
Cook insists that Apple Intelligence doesn't replace people, it helps them do things better. "It's still coming from you," he says. "It's your thoughts and your perspective."
He makes the analogy that "Logic Pro helps musicians create music, but they're still the author." And he compares AI to "the productivity that came from the advent of the personal computer."
Cook is less convincing about one of Apple's own ads that sees a job candidate use Apple Intelligence to rewrite their cover letter to sound more professional.
"By using the tool, [the application] comes across as more polished," he says. "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?"
Working at Apple Park
Cook is also enthused about the collaboration he says Apple Park has brought, calling the decision to build it a 100-year decision."
"[There] are so many places here where you just unexpectedly run into people," he says. "In the cafeteria, at the coffee bar, outside when you're going across the pathway."
It's now three years since Cook said he would "probably" be leaving Apple within a decade. Today he won't put such an exact figure on it, although he says that he gets "asked that question now more than I used to."
"It's a privilege of a lifetime to be here," he continues, "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," says Cook. "It's the overwhelming majority of my adult life. And so I love it."
Separately, Cook has recently been talking more about the start of his career, rather than its end. He's talked about how a family work ethic helps him at Apple today.
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Comments
I think some other small things have been added but I can't say that I use them.
it it’s also fantastic for language translations. All I have to do is say for instance, “how do you say in French…”
You’re not looking very hard. You just wanted to get your three times Microsoft Recall notice in. But Apple has put together a coherent plan and put a system in place that is more well thought out than their competition Microsoft and Google.
In fact after Apple presented its Apple Intelligence plans at WWDC the other two nitwits started talking about some of the same things computing AI on the edge, but it hasn’t helped them because they’re still confused on what they are doing and certainly Microsoft with no mobile presence of their own there is only so much Microsoft can do their partnership for example with Qualcomm copilot Snapdragon laptops has been a fiasco.
But yeah, in terms of saying that Apple has been working on Apple Intelligence for 7 years feels like spin. If you want to look at what Apple was really working on in terms of machine learning look at the Vision Pro.
Apple’s long term outlook was to move toward you being the centre of your digital hub. It is a really cool plan and long term it could be great. But in the mean time tech is going to go in the direction of perusing generative AI.
That said, though it’s in the hands of the general public now? The Vision Pro is priced like a concept car. But it’s nearly 2024 and what people really want right now is to be able to have their computers magically do tasks that they find overwhelming and do them quickly and good enough.
I had this situation where I was sent photos of a document that I needed to tidy up. I used Photos to extract all the text onto Notes on my iPhone. I then used Apple Intelligence to then tidy up the document to make it more professional. It did a good job and I was really happy with the output.
The ability to erase background items from photos is also pretty neat and I also find the notifications summaries pretty useful.
Even the website summaries I tried out were really good and captured the main points of the articles I was reading.
I think it is all a step in the right direction and I think iOS 18.2 is going to make it even better.
I don't really care of feature X or Y was on some other phone/ OS for years. I don't use any other phone besides the iPhone and I really have more faith in the thought Apple puts into its features before it releases them.
Cook really has zero vision at all. He's a beancounter, he needs to be replaced with someone with vision, passion and inspiration. Who ever said "when I'm older I want to be like Tim Cook?" No one at all.