Apple CEO Tim Cook says AI is an unmistakable turning point for technology.
In an interview with Wired released on Wednesday, Cook discussed AI’s impact on Apple and said it will enhance all of Apple’s offerings at some point by changing the way users interact with their phones, tablets, and laptops.
“AI will reinvent and provide a new era and a new chapter for iPhone and iPad and the Mac and all of our products over time,” Cook said. “Because I think it changes the way you interface with the product.”
Cook stated that he personally uses Apple Intelligence to summarize emails. Apple is an email-based company, he explained, so he gets a high volume of messages from all corners, including from employees and customers. Cook says Apple Intelligence summarizes and prioritizes his emails for him so he knows what to read first.
Siri also received an AI boost in October when Apple released iOS 18.1, which allows Siri to understand more context, handle tech support questions, and switch between text and voice commands with AI. There have been reports that Apple is preparing to launch a new and improved AI version of Siri in the coming months.
In the interview, Cook calls himself a Siri “power user” and says he’s one of the 1.5 billion requests that Siri gets per day. He explained that with AI, more Apple users will use Siri and develop a personal connection with the voice assistant.
“I already have a personal relationship with Siri, but I think more people will because Siri will become more personally relevant and be able to take tasks off your plate that you don’t have to do,” Cook said.
Though AI is expensive, costing over $100 million to train by one estimate, having AI-enhanced features on Apple products doesn’t mean paying extra for them, Cook says. He notes that there were “never” conversations about charging for AI services, like AI that can draft emails or texts from within iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Instead, Apple views AI as a core experience for using its products.
And when it comes to originality, Cook says that using AI to make writing sound more polished or friendlier still means the writing is yours.
“It’s still coming from you,” he stated.
Related: Apple Adds AI Writing Tools to the iPhone 16. Here’s Why That Could Be a Problem.
