Steve Wozniak Talks Apple’s AI Offerings

You are a former Apple insider, your current devoted Apple user, we know that. And the initial version of Apple Intelligence was made available through an iOS update to iPhone 16 and iPhone 15 Pro users. I know you've praised the demos. Have you got a chance to test out the new software and if so, what do you think of it? Yeah, I just installed along with everyone else when it wasn't beta, the iPhone update. And I tried a few little like Siri searches, Siri questions to look for data and I made them a little more complicated in my wording than Siri normally gets and they worked fine. So maybe it was better, I couldn't tell you for sure. I like to use things for a long time before I really comment on are they good, are they worthwhile, this and that. I mean, once in a while I can tell right away, but not yet here. Not yet here. Okay, so there's still a lot that you're going to play around with. How does that compare with how you use Apple or Apple tools or any AI tools right now in your daily life? I'm just trying to get a sense of how you anticipate using Apple AI tools to enhance what you need to do right now. Yeah, I pretty much avoid large language models because I want things to be really that I know it's accurate, like something works rather than it didn't work. And I don't like to be surprised. I want to think about everything that I read or hear and really think it out and that I understand it and can express it in my own words. That's AI. Actual intelligence. Well, that's just it, Steve. Not everybody is, you know, jumping on board the AI bandwagon. Is Apple going to cater to those people that don't care about AI, almost would turn it off if it was on their phones to ensure that they will continue to upgrade each cycle? Oh, I think most of us are on an AI bandwagon and appreciate it very much. But of lightweight stuff, I mean, like we've had AI for quite a while, the highest intelligence of how computers can think out and predict what you're going to want in your life, kind of like our old knowledge navigator going back, you know, 30, 40 years. It was like a little demo we made up of what computers could do if they could really think. And we're moving closer towards that. But the inaccuracies doesn't really help you if it doesn't create. It just repeats things. So it's a very good search engine for me. It finds things on the web. I wish it had citations that you could click on any item that came back to you from AI and say, or just question it verbally and say, where did this come from? And let it tell you, just like all the citations in scientific journals that advance our knowledge. So, as you know, Steve, Apple hasn't always been very first. It hasn't been the very first of certain things, but it usually ends up being the best at something. What would you advise, you know, the current team to do in order to be the best at AI? I don't know, have the best testing you can. Apple already shows that it cares so much about the employees and the users, and, you know, diversification and, you know, and also not tracking you being a little more private than the others. So I think that's a good sign that Apple is going to pay attention to, you know, not taking advantage of you with AI. And largely, though, it's up to the user. I think a lot of user education should come along with this. Yeah, Apple has definitely made privacy one of its differentiating points when it comes to its innovation, especially when it comes to AI. Do you think overall, just taking a step back as we talk about these earnings from these big tech companies, that investors and financial markets overall are impatient when they punish companies for spending too much on AI and not having enough to show for it in terms of, you know, monetization or some kind of tangible return? Well, what comes in the form of AI and how good it is, is really created by the upper executives in a company. But the trouble is the upper executives in a company don't exactly own it. It's all the little shareholders like you and I and and others and investors. And so and so they're watching every little report and everything and turn the stock up and down. Apple is a little bit and I do recognize the problem of iPhone being kind of the major product. We're sort of closer to a one product company. There were times with the Apple 2, we were one product company. There were times with the Macintosh and even a Fortune 500 company way up on the list like Fortune 20. Our stock would drop by a third in one day sometimes. And you didn't have a backup of a lot of other products, you know, like the Apple services and Apple Pay and all that to kind of balance things out a bit. So that is a concern that I do agree with. You've got to keep your eye on it, but Apple is still doing a good job for the Apple community. Well, exactly. And for investors, Steve, I wonder what kind of a job you think Apple is doing. You've been around, you know, the financial world a long time. Is the price at $225, there are 39 buys and, you know, many of those price targets are higher. Is it trading at a good valuation in your estimation? Yikes, I'm a user type person, not an investor. I have never used Apple's stock app. When I was 18 to 20 years old, I came up with a formula that, A, I'd never be political and never vote, but also that I would be I wanted to be happy in life. And that meant smiles minus frowns. If you're constantly watching something to go up and down stock or valuation of this and that, you're you're not going to be that happy, you know. So I just like to let my head run nice and smooth. That's just me. And I like to observe things and be an observer and obviously be affected by things. But I've just I just can't get into that. So one's and zeroes, but that's what I mean about this is one's and zeroes in a different way, right? Exactly. Steve, I really appreciate your joining us. Smiles minus frowns. And I like to avoid frowns.