Apple CEO Tim Cook says AI is an undeniable turning point for technology.
In a interview with Wired Published on Wednesday, Cook discussed AI’s impact on Apple and said it will at some point improve all of Apple’s offerings by changing the way users interact with their phones, tablets and laptops.
“AI will reinvent and usher in a new era and a new chapter for iPhone, iPad, Mac and all of our products over time,” Cook said. “Because I think it changes the way you interact with the product.”
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Cook declared that he personally uses Apple Intelligence to summarize emails. Apple is an email-based company, he explained, so it receives a high volume of messages from everywhere, 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 better understand context, handle tech support questions, and switch between text and voice commands with AI. It has been reported that Apple is preparing to launch a new and improved version of Siri with AI in the coming months.
In the interview, Cook calls himself a “power user” of Siri and says he is one of 1.5 billion requests that Siri receives 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 can take tasks off your hands that you don’t have to do,” Cook said.
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Although AI is expensive, with training costing more than $100 million by one estimate, having AI-enhanced features on Apple products doesn’t mean paying extra for them, Cook says. He notes that there have “never” been discussions about charging for AI services, such as AI that can write emails or texts from an iPhone, iPad and of a Mac. Instead, Apple views AI as an essential experience for using its products.
And when it comes to originality, Cook says using AI to make writing neater or more user-friendly still means the writing is yours.
“It always comes from you,” he said.
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