In a Wired interview, Apple's new chief defended the company's measured approach to artificial intelligence after years of being labeled a laggard
Apple’s new CEO has a message for anyone who thinks the company is late to the AI party. It’s not late. It’s simply choosing its moment.
In an interview with Wired’s Steven Levy, John Ternus defended Apple’s position in the artificial intelligence race, arguing that the company will use AI heavily in its products while refusing to treat it as a gimmick.
What Ternus actually said
Ternus told Levy that Apple will lean on AI in its upcoming products, describing it as a tool the company fully intends to use. He drew a firm line around how it gets deployed, though.
“We don’t want to ship AI for AI’s sake.”
Ternus also pushed back on the idea that AI agents could take over the core of what Apple does. He described the act of building products as fundamentally human and personal. In his view, software that can write code or generate designs doesn’t replace the judgment behind a good product.
The interview, conducted on October 30, 2026, landed during the launch week of a new touchscreen MacBook Pro, which Apple unveiled in Los Angeles.
The Siri problem, and the reputation that came with it
For the past couple of years, Apple has been widely described as trailing its rivals on AI. The biggest piece of evidence was Siri.
Apple delayed the release of a more capable version of its voice assistant, and that upgraded Siri didn’t arrive until this summer. Ternus’s answer is that Apple was never trying to win the same race as everyone else. Rather than competing head-on with the leading AI developers, the company is folding intelligence into apps and features people already use.
Privacy and on-device processing as the strategy
The other pillar of Ternus’s pitch is where the AI actually runs. Apple is prioritizing on-device processing, meaning more of the computation happens on your phone or laptop rather than on remote servers.
Ternus framed privacy and user benefit as central to how Apple thinks about AI. He also signaled a commitment to cybersecurity, and to the idea of devices like the iPhone acting as an intelligent personal hub.
This approach is a deliberate departure from chasing large, general-purpose AI models. Apple is betting that customers care more about useful, private improvements than about which company has the biggest model on a benchmark leaderboard.
A new CEO, a familiar playbook
Ternus took over as Apple’s CEO on September 1, 2026, following Tim Cook’s departure. Before that, he served as senior vice president of hardware engineering. At 51, Ternus has emphasized continuity with the leadership he inherited.
