It seems safe to assume that Apple co-founder and right-to-repair evangelist Steve Wozniak won’t be turning over his day-to-day tasks to an AI agent any time soon. In a recent interview with CNN, he revealed that he doesn’t use AI much and when he does, he finds himself “disappointed a lot” by its lack of focus and understanding.
Woz was being interviewed about Apple’s upcoming 50-year anniversary and was asked for his thoughts on AI. “I’ll ask a question where one word is the key item, the direction I want to go, and AI will come back with a whole bunch of clear explanations that are on the subject, but not what I really was interested in,” he said. He also suggested the text it produces is “too perfect” and “dry.” Ultimately, he wants something more human, he said.
Eventually, AI might replace white-collar jobs, Woz conceded, but we’re not there yet. “[We don’t] understand well enough how the brain works to get to that point that it replaces the human; has emotions; cares about things; wants to help others; wants to be a good person.”
Indeed, large language models are often described as advanced autocomplete engines. They can find the next best string in a sequence, but they don’t “understand” what they’re saying. Even with the latest models, hallucinations are still an issue.
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Wozniak’s comments come as Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang argued this week that “we’ve achieved AGI,” though his definition may differ from the Apple co-founder’s. Other CEOs are also singing AI’s praises, though they have bottom lines and shareholders to consider. Wozniak is more free to speak his mind.
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Jon Martindale
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Jon Martindale is a tech journalist from the UK, with 20 years of experience covering all manner of PC components and associated gadgets. He’s written for a range of publications, including ExtremeTech, Digital Trends, Forbes, U.S. News & World Report, and Lifewire, among others. When not writing, he’s a big board gamer and reader, with a particular habit of speed-reading through long manga sagas.
Jon covers the latest PC components, as well as how-to guides on everything from how to take a screenshot to how to set up your cryptocurrency wallet. He particularly enjoys the battles between the top tech giants in CPUs and GPUs, and tries his best not to take sides.
Jon’s gaming PC is built around the iconic 7950X3D CPU, with a 7900XTX backing it up. That’s all the power he needs to play lightweight indie and casual games, as well as more demanding sim titles like Kerbal Space Program. He uses a pair of Jabra Active 8 earbuds and a SteelSeries Arctis Pro wireless headset, and types all day on a Logitech G915 mechanical keyboard.
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