Source : TechCrunch
CUPERTINO, California, October 31, 2026 – Apple’s new chief executive, John Ternus, has defended the company’s approach to artificial intelligence, saying Apple will use the technology in its products but has no interest in releasing AI features simply for the sake of it.
Ternus made the remarks in an interview with WIRED’s Steven Levy, published on Friday, October 30, as reported by TechCrunch. Levy spoke to him in Los Angeles during Apple’s launch of its new touchscreen MacBook Pro.
Apple has often been described as lagging behind its rivals in AI over the past couple of years, particularly after it delayed a more capable version of its Siri voice assistant, which finally arrived this summer, TechCrunch noted. Asked about that view, Ternus acknowledged that “everyone has an opinion”, but said: “I really like where we’re at.”
“I would hope people recognize that the work we do is building incredible products that make their lives better,” he told WIRED. “We’re absolutely going to leverage AI to do that. We don’t want to ship AI for AI’s sake. 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 also raised the possibility that AI could upend Apple’s business more deeply, with AI agents created from prompts making many of today’s apps unnecessary. Ternus was not persuaded. “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,” he said.
When asked whether he supports regulation of AI, Ternus did not give a direct answer, pointing instead to security. “We all read the stories and think about it from a cybersecurity standpoint – clearly these models are very capable of doing things,” he said. “Our focus is on making sure that our products are secure and safe, and protecting the users’ information.”
Ternus, 51, who has spent about 25 years at Apple according to The Next Web, officially took over as chief executive at the beginning of September. His predecessor, Tim Cook, is now Apple’s executive chairman. Ternus told WIRED that Cook “is available to help wherever I ask him, and it’s great to have him in that role”.
He also described himself as having had only a handful of interactions with Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, while seeing himself as a student of Jobs’ teachings. “But, you know, I do love product. I’m super passionate about it,” he said.
WIRED framed the interview around the idea that Ternus may be judged on how he handles AI, setting out two competing views of Apple: one that it has been held back by its struggles with Siri and remains in catch-up mode, and another that it has been wise to avoid the huge cost of building its own frontier AI model and to build AI into its products with a focus on privacy instead.
Ternus had been in the top job for less than two months at the time of the interview. In the interview he made clear that Apple intends to build AI into its products rather than ship it for its own sake.
Source: TechCrunch on X
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