Apple CEO Ternus: We Won't Ship AI for AI's Sake
TL;DR
- New Apple CEO John Ternus told Wired the company is 'absolutely going to leverage AI' but won't 'ship AI for AI's sake.'
- Ternus argued successful AI should be invisible: users shouldn't have to think about whether AI or traditional software built the feature.
- Pressed on agents replacing apps, he called product creation 'a deeply human and personal thing,' pushing back on the agent-first thesis.
"We don't want to ship AI for AI's sake," Apple CEO John Ternus told Wired's Steven Levy, in an interview picked up by TechCrunch on October 31.
Ternus, a longtime Apple executive who officially took the CEO job at the beginning of September, said the company is "absolutely going to leverage AI" but framed its approach as invisible by design. "When we're doing it right, people won't have to think about whether it was AI that made this happen or more traditional software. What matters is, did we build something that they really love?"
Levy pressed him on whether agents could eventually make apps unnecessary. Ternus replied: "That could make life really easy, I suppose, but the creation of products is a deeply human and personal thing, something that we love to do."
The backdrop is a year of criticism that Apple has lagged competitors. The company delayed a more powerful version of Siri, which finally launched this summer. Asked about where that leaves Apple, Ternus allowed that "everyone has an opinion" but said, "I really like where we're at." The remarks land the same day Apple acquihired agentic-data startup Ascend.io via the EU's Digital Markets Act, one of 75 Apple AI stories we have tracked in the last 90 days.
Originally reported by techcrunch.com
Read the original article →Original headline: Apple CEO John Ternus Tells TechCrunch Apple Won't 'Ship AI for AI's Sake'