Interview Roundup: Apple’s Executives Talk Up Apple Intelligence and WWDC

In what has become a yearly WWDC tradition, Apple executives have been out talking about the big announcements from this year’s conference. Craig Federighi, Greg Joswiak, John Giannandrea, and Tim Cook have given interviews to YouTubers, news sites, and John Gruber on a special edition of The Talk Show streamed live in spatial video.

They gave fascinating answers to some questions, particularly about Apple Intelligence, so without further ado, here’s a roundup of interesting Apple executive interviews over the past few days.

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First up was an event that took place shortly after the keynote on Monday. In the Steve Jobs Theatre, YouTube star iJustine went onstage in front of the press (including our own John Voorhees) to interview Craig Federighi and John Giannandrea about everything that was announced.

While it wasn’t the most hard-hitting interview, there were a few intriguing tidbits. Federighi revealed that the models used in the new Image Playground app were trained on the ‘open web,’ as well as the fact that publishers can opt out if they so choose. There is the issue of those publishers not having the choice before Apple’s models were trained, but it was not addressed. The event was not recorded, but a live blog on￼The Verge covered many of the main talking points.

Then, Federighi and Greg Joswiak appeared on a live edition of John Gruber’s podcast The Talk Show. You can watch the video below.

In the meantime, Tim Cook was doing the rounds with YouTube creators. He sat down with MKBHD, iJustine, and SuperSaf for short interviews. The MKBHD video is worth a watch to see Marques’ smile as he watches Tim Cook try to explain how fabulous the Magic Mouse is. Cook also, strangely, seems to think students didn’t attend WWDC before the iPhone’s release, which is incorrect.

All three videos are available to watch below.

However, the most noteworthy interviews I’ve come across were conducted by The Washington Post, interviewing Tim Cook, and Fast Company, interviewing Craig Federighi. The former interview, conducted by Josh Tyrangiel, was of particular interest for its straightforward questioning on the ethics of AI and Apple’s partnership with OpenAI.

On the chances of Apple Intelligence never hallucinating, Tim Cook had this to say:

I’d say in all honesty that’s short of 100 percent. I would never claim that it’s 100 percent.

On the reasons for partnering with OpenAI:

They’ve done some things on privacy that I like. They’re not tracking IP addresses… they’re first, and I think today it’s because they’re best.

On whether OpenAI is a trustworthy partner that shares Apple’s values:

We looked at everything and considered everything, and concluded that it was in the best interest of our users to select them.

The whole interview is worth a read, including Cook’s views on the Biden administration’s AI policies, AI and journalism, and a great Douglas Adams quote about technology advancements.

Federighi’s interview with Fast Company, conducted by Michael Grothaus, makes for interesting reading, too, including a comment about bringing Apple Intelligence to China despite privacy fears:

“We certainly want to find a way to bring all of our best product capabilities to all of our customers,” he said, while acknowledging that “in some regions of the world, there are regulations that need to be worked through.”

No doubt, there will be many more interviews to come from Apple executives over the coming months as we near the release of the company’s latest operating systems and Apple Intelligence. In the meantime, if you haven’t checked out the WWDC Keynote, you can do so on Apple’s Events site, on YouTube, or in the TV app.

Apple is also hosting the keynote presentation in higher quality on Apple Podcasts, where you can choose between video or audio versions.