2024-12-04 Tim Cook Wants Apple to Literally Save Your Life

2024-12-04 Tim Cook Wants Apple to Literally Save Your Life


EVERY TIME I visit the Apple Park campus, my mind flashes to a tour I took months before construction was finished, when there was dust on the terrazzo floors and mud where lush vegetation now flourishes. My guide was Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. With a proprietor’s pride, he ushered me through the $5 billion circular colossus, explaining that committing to the new campus was a “100-year decision.”
每次我访问苹果公园(Apple Park)时,我的脑海中都会闪现几个月前的那次参观。当时建设还未完成,特拉佐(terrazzo)地板上覆盖着灰尘,泥土替代了如今茂盛的植被。我的导游是苹果公司CEO蒂姆·库克(Tim Cook)。怀着业主的自豪感,他带我走遍了这座价值50亿美元的圆形巨建筑,并解释说,投资新园区是一个“百年决策”。

Today I am returning to the Ring—pulsing with energy seven years after it opened—to see Cook again. The tech world is at an inflection point. The mightiest companies will either stumble or secure their dominance for decades. We are here to discuss Cook’s big move in this high-stakes environment: the impending release of Apple Intelligence, the company’s first significant offering in the white-hot field of generative AI. Some consider it belated. All year, Apple’s competitors have been gaining buzz, dazzling investors, and dominating the news cycle with their chatbots, while the world’s most valuable company (as I write) was showing off an expensive, bulky augmented-reality headset. Apple has to get AI right. Corporations, after all, are less likely than buildings to stand proud for a century.
今天,我再次回到苹果公园——七年后的今天,园区充满活力——来再次见到库克。科技界正处于一个转折点。最强大的公司将要么跌倒,要么确保几十年的主导地位。我们今天要讨论的是库克在这个充满高风险的环境下的重要举措:即将发布的Apple Intelligence,这是苹果公司在炙手可热的生成性AI领域的首个重大产品。有些人认为这一行动来得太迟了。整年,苹果的竞争对手们通过他们的聊天机器人吸引了大量关注,令投资者眼花缭乱,并主导了新闻周期,而全球最有价值的公司(在我写作时)则展示了一款昂贵、笨重的增强现实头戴设备。苹果必须做好AI。毕竟,企业比建筑更不可能屹立百年。

Cook didn’t panic. Like his predecessor Steve Jobs, he doesn’t believe that first is best. “Classic Apple,” as he puts it, enters a cacophonous field of first-movers and, with a strong grasp of novelty versus utility, unveils products that make the latest technologies relatable and even sexy. Think back to how the iPod rethought digital music. It wasn’t the first MP3 player, but its compactness, ease of use, and integration with an online store thrilled people with a new way to consume their tunes.
库克并没有惊慌。像他的前任史蒂夫·乔布斯(Steve Jobs)一样,他不认为“第一”就是“最佳”。他所说的“经典苹果”,进入了一个充满先行者的嘈杂领域,并凭借对新颖性与实用性的精准把握,推出了让最新技术既易于理解又充满魅力的产品。回想一下iPod如何重新定义数字音乐。它并不是第一个MP3播放器,但它的紧凑设计、易用性以及与在线商店的整合,使人们以一种全新的方式享受音乐。

Cook also contends that Apple has been preparing for the AI revolution all along. As far back as 2018, he poached Google’s top AI manager, John Giannandrea, for a rare expansion of the company’s senior vice president ranks. Then he pulled the plug on a long-running smart-car program (an open secret never publicly acknowledged by Apple) and marshaled the company’s machine-learning talent to build AI into its software products.
库克还坚持认为,苹果一直在为AI革命做好准备。早在2018年,他就挖走了谷歌的顶级AI经理约翰·贾南德里亚(John Giannandrea),并罕见地扩充了公司高级副总裁的职位。接着,他终止了一个长期运行的智能汽车项目(这是一个苹果从未公开承认的公开秘密),并将公司在机器学习方面的才干集中起来,把AI融入其软件产品中。

In June, Apple announced the results: a layer of AI for its whole product line. Cook had also brokered a deal with the gold standard in chatbots, OpenAI, so that his users could have access to ChatGPT. I’d gotten a few demos of what they were planning to reveal, including a tool to create custom emoji with verbal prompts and an easy-to-use AI picture generator called Image Playground. (I hadn’t yet tested the revivification of Siri, Apple’s lackluster AI agent.)
今年6月,苹果宣布了成果:为整个产品线增加了一层AI。库克还与聊天机器人领域的金标准OpenAI达成了合作,使得苹果的用户可以使用ChatGPT。我也体验了他们计划发布的一些演示,包括一个可以通过语言提示创建自定义表情符号的工具,以及一个名为Image Playground的易用AI图像生成器。(我还没有测试Siri的复活,苹果那款表现平平的AI助手。)

Perhaps what most distinguishes Apple’s AI—at least according to Apple—is its focus on privacy, a hallmark of the Cook regime. The AI tools, which are rolling out through software updates on the latest iPhone and relatively recent Macs, will largely run on the device itself—you don’t send your data to the cloud. The computation for more complicated AI tasks, Cook assures, occurs in secure regions of Apple’s data centers.
也许苹果AI最显著的特点——至少根据苹果的说法——是它对隐私的关注,这是库克时代的一大标志。这些AI工具通过软件更新,正在最新款的iPhone和相对较新的Mac上推出,绝大部分计算将在设备本身上完成——你不会将数据发送到云端。库克保证,更多复杂的AI任务的计算会在苹果数据中心的安全区域进行。

Another thing I’m reminded of on my return to the Ring is how skillful Cook is at touting the results of his big decisions, from the Apple Watch to his bet on custom silicon chips, which unleashed innovations that boost Apple phones and laptops. (And not mentioning decisions that didn’t pan out, like that multibillion-dollar smart-car project.) When he strolls into the conference room where we’re meeting, I know Cook will be meticulously cordial, displaying manners honed during his Alabama boyhood, while calmly hyperbolizing the virtues of Apple’s products and fending off criticisms of his very powerful company. (And when asked for comment on the election results, which came in after our talk, he chose to keep his views to himself.)
回到苹果园区,我还想起了库克在推销自己重大决策成果时的高超技巧,从Apple Watch到他对定制硅芯片的押注,这些都激发了提升苹果手机和笔记本电脑的创新。(当然,他并没有提到那些未能成功的决策,比如那项数十亿美元的智能汽车项目。)当他走进我们会面所在的会议室时,我知道库克会非常礼貌、谨慎地表现出自己在阿拉巴马州成长过程中培养的风度,同时冷静地夸大苹果产品的优点,并巧妙地回避对其强大公司的批评。(当被问及对选举结果的看法时,他选择保持沉默。)

Steve Jobs would come at a journalist like the rain in Buenaventura, aggressively pitching his message; Cook envelopes his interlocutors in a gentle mist and confides awed assessments of his company’s efforts.
史蒂夫·乔布斯(Steve Jobs)会像布恩文图拉的雨一样猛烈地向记者推销自己的信息;而库克则像轻雾一样包围着对话者,低声传递他对公司努力的敬畏评价。

The ultimate assessments, of course, will come from users. But if 40 years of covering Apple has taught me anything, it is this: Should this first iteration of AI fall short, an unrepentant Cook will show up at a future pretaped keynote hailing a new version as “the best Apple Intelligence we’ve ever built.” Despite all the pressure, Tim Cook never lets you see him sweat.
最终的评判,当然,来自用户。但如果说我在报道苹果公司40年的经验教给了我什么,那就是:如果这款AI的首次迭代未能达标,库克不会悔过,他将在未来的预录会议中把新版本称为“我们所打造的最好的Apple Intelligence”。尽管承受巨大的压力,蒂姆·库克永远不会让你看到他流汗。

This interview has been edited for length and clarity, combining on-camera and off-camera portions. Check out WIRED’s YouTube channel for the video.
本次访谈已根据长度和清晰度进行编辑,结合了镜头前后的部分内容。请查看WIRED的YouTube频道观看视频。

When did you first understand generative AI was going to be a very big deal?
你什么时候意识到生成性AI将会成为一件非常重要的事情?

I wouldn’t say there was an aha moment. It built like a wave, or like rolling thunder. Back in 2017 we built a neural engine into our products. It was already apparent that AI and machine learning were huge. It became obvious that we had to divert lots of people to it, that it would be a new era for our products.
我不会说有一个“恍然大悟”的时刻。它像波浪一样逐渐形成,像滚雷一样蔓延。早在2017年,我们就在产品中嵌入了神经引擎。那时就已经显而易见,AI和机器学习是巨大的趋势。很明显,我们必须将大量资源投入其中,这将是我们产品的新纪元。

How did you figure out what you’d build with it?
你们是如何决定用它构建什么的?

We wanted to innovate in such a way that things would be personal and private. We began to think about the intersection of those things in a way that was classic Apple—how do you deliver this technology so that it benefits people and enhances their lives?
我们希望以一种既个人化又隐私保护的方式进行创新。我们开始思考如何将这些因素结合在一起,这是经典的苹果做法——如何提供这项技术,使其能惠及人们并提升他们的生活?

In your presentations you use Apple Intelligence almost as a synonym for AI. Do you think people fear AI?
在你的演示中,你几乎将Apple Intelligence与AI视为同义词。你认为人们害怕AI吗?

I think that does exist. We batted around names for everything and decided on Apple Intelligence. It wasn’t a pun off of artificial intelligence. In hindsight, it seems so straightforward.
我认为确实存在这种情况。我们为所有东西都讨论了名字,最终决定使用Apple Intelligence。这并不是在玩“人工智能”的文字游戏。回过头来看,这个名字显得非常直接。

Some companies charge for AI-enhanced services. Did you consider that?
有些公司对AI增强服务收费。你们考虑过吗?

We never talked about charging for it. We view it sort of like multitouch, which enabled the smartphone revolution and the modern tablet.
我们从未讨论过收费问题。我们把它看作是类似多点触控那样的技术,它促进了智能手机革命和现代平板电脑的诞生。
Warning
还不是苹果自己的产品。
You’ve personally been using Apple Intelligence for a while. What has been most useful for you?
你个人使用Apple Intelligence已经有一段时间了。对你来说,最有用的是什么?

We’re an email-based company, and I get enormous numbers from users, employees, partners, and so forth. Having it summarize author responses is a game changer, and having it prioritize things for you so you’re not doing your usual triage. Then, of course, there are fun things like the Image Playground.
我们是一个基于电子邮件的公司,我收到大量来自用户、员工、合作伙伴等的邮件。让它为你总结回复内容是一个颠覆性的变化,让它帮助你优先处理事务,避免你进行常规的分拣工作。当然,还有一些有趣的功能,比如Image Playground。
Warning
无法描述这项新技术的前景。
I’ve heard you say that Apple Intelligence could make you funnier, which seems strange.
我听你说过,Apple Intelligence可以让你变得更幽默,这听起来有些奇怪。

I think it can make you friendlier, which, in many ways, can be funnier as well.
我认为它可以让你变得更友好,而友好在许多方面也可以是幽默的。

Having AI speak for people makes me wonder whether the nature of communication will degrade. If Apple Intelligence writes something funny, who’s being funny, the sender or the AI?
让AI代替人类说话让我想知道,沟通的本质是否会退化。如果Apple Intelligence写了一些幽默的内容,那究竟是谁在幽默,发件人还是AI?

It’s still coming from you. It’s your thoughts and your perspective. You and I both remember the productivity that came from the advent of the personal computer. It was no longer you punching your calculator, you were doing something on a spreadsheet. It was no longer you at the typewriter, you were using a word processor. Logic Pro helps musicians create music, but they’re still the author.
这依然是从你那里传来的。是你的想法和你的视角。你我都记得,个人计算机的出现带来了生产力的提升。你不再是简单地使用计算器,而是在电子表格上做事情;你不再是打字机上的操作,而是在使用文字处理软件。Logic Pro帮助音乐人创作音乐,但他们仍然是创作者。

One of your demos involves a fictional recent graduate applying for a job. The cover letter is colloquial and somewhat sophomoric, but with Apple Intelligence a single click changes it to look like a savvy, smart person wrote it. If I’m a recruiter who hired that person, maybe I will feel tricked if they don’t live up to the professionalism of that letter.
你们的一个演示涉及一位虚构的应届毕业生申请工作。求职信显得口语化且有些幼稚,但借助Apple Intelligence,一键点击就能将其转变为看起来像一个精明聪明的人写的。如果我是一名招聘人员,雇用了那个人,但他们未能达到求职信中的专业水平,我可能会觉得被欺骗了。

I don’t think so. By using the tool, it comes across as more polished. It’s still your decision to use the tool. It’s like you and I collaborating on something—one plus one can equal more than two, right?
我不这么认为。使用这个工具后,它看起来更精炼了。使用这个工具仍然是你的决定。这就像你我在合作——一加一可以大于二,不是吗?
Warning
这个回答很没有内含。
I guess the counterargument is that back in the early days of internet search, people complained that no one bothered to memorize dates anymore: “I don’t need to. I have a search engine!” So no one has to learn history—and now, how to write a professional letter.
我想反方论点是,在互联网搜索的早期,人们抱怨没人再去记住日期了:“我不需要记住,我有搜索引擎!”所以没人需要再学历史——现在,没人需要学会写专业的求职信。

These worries have been around for years. I remember when people felt like the calculator would fundamentally erode people’s math ability. Did it really, or did it make something more efficient?
这些担忧已经存在多年了。我记得曾经有人觉得计算器会从根本上削弱人们的数学能力。它真的削弱了吗,还是让某些事情变得更高效了?

I used to know how to do long division. I don’t anymore.
我曾经知道如何做长除法,现在不再知道了。

I haven’t forgotten.
我可没忘。

Point to you. Another thing that strikes me about Apple Intelligence is that you already had a lot of information about us from our emails, our calendars, and other Apple products. To make Apple Intelligence useful, you stitch together all that information. That’s why privacy is so critical. Not many companies can do that, because they don’t have Apple’s ecosystem.
这是你的优势。另一个让我对Apple Intelligence印象深刻的地方是,你们已经从我们的电子邮件、日历以及其他苹果产品中获得了大量信息。为了让Apple Intelligence更有用,你们将这些信息结合起来。这就是为什么隐私如此重要。不是很多公司能做到这一点,因为他们没有苹果的生态系统。

We don’t look at it as the value of the ecosystem. It’s doing things to help people and make their lives better. And it clearly does that.
我们并不把它看作是生态系统的价值。我们做这些事情是为了帮助人们并改善他们的生活,显然,它达到了这个目标。

Will you open up Apple apps like Mail and Messages to other companies to use in their AI systems? How are you thinking about privacy there?
你们会开放像Mail和Messages这样的苹果应用,供其他公司在其AI系统中使用吗?你们在这方面是如何考虑隐私问题的?

We’ll always consider the privacy implications. We don’t accept that there’s a trade-off between great privacy and great intelligence. Much of Apple Intelligence runs on the device, but for some users we need more powerful models. So we crafted private cloud compute that essentially has the same privacy and security as your device does. We just kept plugging at it until we came up with the right idea.
我们始终会考虑隐私影响。我们不认为优秀的隐私和优秀的智能之间有折衷。大部分Apple Intelligence的功能运行在设备上,但对于一些用户,我们需要更强大的模型。所以我们设计了私有云计算,它在隐私和安全性上基本与您的设备相同。我们一直在努力,直到想出合适的方案。

OK, let’s change gears a bit. Apple has been designing custom silicon to make its products more efficient and powerful. This seems to me an underappreciated part of Apple’s success in the past decade.
好吧,让我们换个话题。苹果一直在设计定制的硅芯片,以使其产品更加高效和强大。我认为这是苹果在过去十年成功中被低估的一部分。

It’s a huge enabler. We’ve always believed that we should own the primary technologies that our products are built on. Steve talked about this. I’m not saying we’ve always done that, but we’ve always believed that, and it was always a journey to get there.
这是一个巨大的推动力。我们一直相信,我们应该拥有构建产品的核心技术。史蒂夫曾谈到过这一点。我并不是说我们一直都做到这一点,但我们始终相信这一点,而且这始终是一个不断前进的过程。

But there is one technology—world-knowledgeable large language models—that you’re outsourcing to OpenAI. When you announced the deal, it seemed framed as an initial arrangement. Is it inevitable that you will eventually build your own powerful LLMs?
但是,有一项技术——世界知识丰富的大型语言模型——你们外包给了OpenAI。当你们宣布达成协议时,它看起来是一个初步安排。你们最终是否不可避免地会自己构建强大的LLM(大型语言模型)?

I wouldn’t want to predict. We felt that OpenAI was the pioneer and was ahead. We felt that some portion of our customers would want access to world knowledge [that Apple Intelligence doesn’t provide], and we wanted to integrate it in an elegant way that still respected people’s ability to choose whether they wanted to do that or not.
我不想做预测。我们认为OpenAI是先行者,并且走在前面。我们觉得一些客户会希望获取世界知识(Apple Intelligence目前无法提供),而我们希望以一种优雅的方式将其集成,同时尊重人们是否愿意选择使用的能力。

I’m wondering whether there’s been a vibe shift in your relationship, even before you started using ChatGPT in your products. First Apple was going to have an observer on OpenAI’s board. Now you’re not. Recently it was rumored you were going to participate in their big investment round. You didn’t. Meanwhile, OpenAI has had some key employee departures, and the FTC is examining whether AI power is too concentrated. Has there been any cooling off?
我在想,尽管你们还没有在产品中使用ChatGPT,但你们之间的关系是否发生了变化。最初,苹果计划让一个观察员进入OpenAI的董事会,但现在没有了。最近有传言说你们将参与OpenAI的大规模融资轮,但你们没有参与。同时,OpenAI也有一些关键员工离职,而且联邦贸易委员会(FTC)正在审查AI权力是否过于集中。你们之间是否有冷却的迹象?

There’s no truth behind that at all. And I would just say, our MO is not to go out and invest in a number of companies. It’s rare that we’ve ever done that. So it would be odd, an exception, for us to do that there.
完全没有这样的事实。我只是想说,我们的做法并不是去投资很多公司。我们很少做这样的事。所以如果我们在那里做这件事,那将是一个例外,非常奇怪。

So you never considered investing in OpenAI?
那么你们从未考虑过投资OpenAI吗?

I’m not going to say we never looked at it. I’m just saying that it would be a rare move on our part to do that. We did ARM back in the day. Who else did we do? We did one or two others.
我不能说我们从未考虑过。我只是说,那将是我们非常少见的一次举动。我们当年投资了ARM。我们还做过其他什么吗?我们做过一两笔其他投资。

ARM was pretty good.
ARM确实不错。

ARM was pretty good. [In 1990, Apple invested $3 million to own 30 percent of ARM—a stake that would be worth hundreds of millions of dollars. But more important, ARM was and is a critical chip supplier, most notably for the iPhone.]
ARM确实不错。[1990年,苹果投资了300万美元,收购了ARM 30%的股份——这笔股份如今价值数亿美元。但更重要的是,ARM一直是并且仍然是重要的芯片供应商,尤其是为iPhone提供芯片。]

One big difference between Apple and OpenAI is that they are obsessed with achieving AGI. You never hear that from Apple. Do you think AGI will happen?
苹果和OpenAI之间的一个大区别是,OpenAI执着于实现AGI(通用人工智能)。你从未听到过苹果有类似的说法。你认为AGI会实现吗?

Right now the technology is good enough where we can deliver it to people and change their lives, and that’s what we’re focused on. We’ll keep pulling the string and see where it takes us.
目前,技术已经足够成熟,我们可以将其交付给人们,改变他们的生活,这就是我们关注的重点。我们会继续推动这个进程,看看它将带我们走向哪里。

If AGI does actually happen, how would that affect Apple?
如果AGI真的实现,它将如何影响苹果?

That’s a discussion that we’ll continue to have.
这是我们将继续讨论的话题。

When you’re thinking about things late at night, don’t you sometimes ask what it would mean if computers had superhuman intelligence?
当你深夜思考问题时,难道你不曾想过如果计算机拥有超人智能会意味着什么吗?

Oh, of course. Not just for Apple, but for the world. There’s so much extraordinary benefit for humanity. Are there some things you have to have guardrails on? Of course. We’re very deeply considerate about things that we do and don’t do. I hope that others are as well. AGI itself is a ways away, at a minimum. We’ll sort out along the way what the guardrails need to be in such an environment.
当然,不仅仅是对苹果公司,而是对整个世界来说。这对人类来说有着巨大的好处。有没有一些事情需要设定界限?当然有。我们对自己做的事情和不做的事情非常谨慎。我希望其他人也一样。AGI本身至少还需要一段时间才能实现。在这个过程中,我们会逐步确定在这样的环境下需要哪些界限。

Implementing generative AI puts a lot of stress on your infrastructure, requiring more power and more data centers. Does this present extra challenges to Apple’s goal to be carbon-neutral by 2030?
实施生成性AI会给你们的基础设施带来很大压力,需要更多的电力和数据中心。这是否会给苹果公司到2030年实现碳中和的目标带来额外挑战?

More challenges, yes. But are we coming off the goal? No, definitely not. With more data centers, you use more renewable energy, and we’ve built that muscle now. Since 2015 our carbon footprint is down over half, while our net sales have gone up well over 50 percent. I feel very good about 2030.
确实是更多的挑战。但我们不会放弃这个目标,绝对不会。随着数据中心的增加,我们使用更多的可再生能源,我们现在已经建立了这个能力。自2015年以来,我们的碳足迹减少了超过一半,同时我们的净销售额增长了超过50%。我对2030年充满信心。

So you won’t have to reactivate old nuclear plants or anything?
所以你们不需要重新启动旧的核电厂或者做其他类似的事情吗?

I don’t see that.
我不认为会有这样的情况。

Obviously, the iPhone has had an incredible impact on our lives. We like them so much that we can’t take our eyes off them. As the person who manufactures and sells them, do you worry that these devices have made us more distractible and ruined our ability to concentrate? In an informal study recently, teachers at elite institutions complained that their students struggle to read books.
显然,iPhone对我们的生活产生了巨大影响。我们喜欢它们到无法将视线从它们上移。作为制造和销售这些设备的人,你是否担心这些设备让我们变得更加容易分心,破坏了我们的专注力?最近一项非正式研究显示,精英院校的老师抱怨他们的学生很难读书。

I worry about people endlessly scrolling. That’s the reason we do things like Screen Time, to try to guide people. We support people putting limits on themselves, like the number of notifications you get. We do a lot of things in the parental controls area as well. My fundamental belief is, if you’re looking at your phone more than you’re looking in somebody’s eyes, that’s a problem.
我担心的是人们不断地滑动屏幕。这就是我们做诸如“屏幕时间”等功能的原因,试图引导人们。我们支持人们为自己设定限制,比如通知的数量。我们在家长控制方面也做了很多事情。我基本的信念是,如果你看手机的时间超过了你注视他人眼睛的时间,那就有问题了。

Steve Jobs instructed you not to imagine what product decisions he would make, but to do what’s best. Still, considering how much he hated buttons, did you look skyward and apologize to him for adding a button to the iPhone 16?
史蒂夫·乔布斯曾指示你不要去想他会做出什么产品决策,而是做出最好的决策。不过,考虑到他对按钮的厌恶,你是否曾仰望天空,为在iPhone 16上加入按钮向他道歉?

I don’t know what Steve would have thought. Of course, I worked with him a long time and have my own views. But what has happened is that people have been taking so many pictures and videos with the iPhone, it was important to make it simple and elegant for them. So important that it merited the camera control.
我不知道史蒂夫会怎么想。当然,我和他共事了很长时间,也有我自己的看法。但发生的事情是,人们用iPhone拍了很多照片和视频,重要的是要让它变得简单而优雅,以便他们使用。因此,加入摄像头控制功能是很重要的。

Let’s talk about your wearable display, the Vision Pro. Reports are that it hasn’t sold at the level that you folks expected. What happened?
让我们谈谈你的可穿戴显示设备,Vision Pro。据报道,它的销量没有达到你们预期的水平,发生了什么?

It’s an early adopter product, for people who want tomorrow’s technology today. Those people are buying it, and the ecosystem is flourishing. The ultimate test for us is the ecosystem. I don’t know if you’re using it very much, but I’m on there all the time. I see new apps all the time.
这是一个面向早期采用者的产品,专为那些今天就想体验明日技术的人设计。那些人正在购买它,而且生态系统正在蓬勃发展。对我们来说,最终的考验是生态系统。我不知道你使用得多不多,但我几乎每天都在使用它。我看到有新的应用不断出现。

I heard that Stevie Wonder had a demo of the Vision Pro and loved it. How did that work?
我听说Stevie Wonder体验了Vision Pro并且非常喜欢。这是怎么回事?

He's a friend of Apple and it's great to get feedback from Stevie. And of course his artistry is just unparalleled. One of the common threads running through Apple over time is that we don't bolt on accessibility at the end of the design process. It's embedded. So getting his feedback was key.
他是苹果的朋友,能得到Stevie的反馈非常好。当然,他的艺术才华无与伦比。苹果一直以来的一个共同特点是,我们不会在设计过程的最后才加上无障碍功能,而是将其嵌入其中。因此,得到他的反馈非常关键。

Meta and Snap are leading us to mixed-reality glasses that we’d wear continually. Is the bigger, heavier Vision Pro ultimately headed that way?
Meta和Snap引领我们走向一种可以持续佩戴的混合现实眼镜。Vision Pro这种更大、更重的产品最终也会朝这个方向发展吗?

Yes, it’s a progression over time in terms of what happens with form factors. AR is a huge deal. With Vision Pro, we’ve progressed to what is clearly the most advanced technology we’ve ever done, and I think the most advanced technology in the world in terms of electronics problems. We’ll see where it goes.
是的,随着外形因素的发展,它会逐步演变。增强现实(AR)是一个巨大的领域。通过Vision Pro,我们已经发展到明显是我们所做过的最先进的技术,我认为它在电子技术问题方面是世界上最先进的。我们拭目以待它的未来。

Apple has created a lot of consumer tools for medical technology. What’s the strategy for biological metrics and prosthetics?
苹果创造了许多面向消费者的医疗技术工具。你们在生物指标和假肢方面的战略是什么?

It’s clear to me that if you zoom out way into the future, and you look back and ask what Apple’s biggest contribution was, it will be in the health area. That’s what I really believe. When we started pulling that string with the Apple Watch, it was a cascade of events. We started with something simple, like monitoring your heart rate, and then figured out we could pick up heart signals to get to an EKG and an AFib determination. Now we are monitoring sleep apnea. I’ve gotten so many notes over time from people who would have not survived had it not been for the alert on their wrist.
我很清楚,如果你放眼未来,回头看看苹果的最大贡献是什么,那肯定是在健康领域。这是我真正相信的。当我们通过Apple Watch开始做这件事时,发生了一系列连锁反应。我们从简单的监测心率开始,接着发现我们可以捕捉到心脏信号,从而获取EKG和房颤(AFib)判断。现在我们在监测睡眠呼吸暂停。我收到了很多来自人们的反馈,如果没有他们手腕上的警报,他们可能早已没有活下来。
Warning
市场很大,但这是充满监管、充满纠纷的领域。
Apple plans to give AirPods the ability to correct for hearing loss. I bet the makers of expensive hearing aids are freaking out.
苹果计划赋予AirPods纠正听力损失的功能。我敢打赌,昂贵助听器的制造商们正感到恐慌。

It’s not about competing against hearing aids on the market. It’s about trying to convince people who have hearing loss to use their AirPods. The vast majority of people with hearing issues have not been diagnosed. For some people, hearing aids have a stigma, and we can counter that with AirPods. And we can have people diagnose themselves. It’s the democratization of health.
这并不是要与市场上的助听器竞争。我们是希望说服那些有听力损失的人使用他们的AirPods。绝大多数有听力问题的人并没有被诊断出来。对一些人来说,助听器有污名,我们可以通过AirPods来打破这一点。而且我们可以让人们自己诊断。这是健康的普及化。

If Apple devices began using AI to analyze all that biometric data in real time, you might diagnose conditions way before a doctor could. Are you conducting experiments in that vein, to flag dangerous medical conditions?
如果苹果设备开始使用AI实时分析所有这些生物数据,你可能会比医生更早诊断出疾病。你们是否在进行类似的实验,以标记危险的医疗状况?

I’m not going to announce anything today. But we have research going on. We’re pouring all of ourselves in here, and we work on things that are years in the making. We were working on hearing a long time before we got it dialed in to where we felt comfortable shipping it.
今天我不会宣布任何事情。但我们有相关的研究在进行。我们全力投入其中,正在处理一些需要多年才能完成的项目。在我们把听力功能调试到让我们觉得可以发布的程度之前,我们已经为此努力了很长时间。

You just announced the iPhone 16. How long can this string go—will there be an iPhone 30? Won’t some AI device replace them soon?
你们刚刚发布了iPhone 16。这个系列还能延续多久——会有iPhone 30吗?某些AI设备不会很快取代它们吗?

We see the smartphone lasting a very long time. There will be more innovation. And obviously you look at the first iPhone that shipped versus the iPhone 16, they’re totally different, right?
我们认为智能手机会持续很长时间。将会有更多创新。显然,你看第一款发布的iPhone和iPhone 16,它们完全不同,对吧?

We’re doing this interview at Apple Park, which is now seven years old. Have you been surprised by anything that couldn’t have been anticipated when it was just blueprints?
我们正在苹果公园进行这次采访,而它已经有七年的历史了。你是否对当初在蓝图阶段无法预见的事情感到惊讶?

It’s promoted collaboration even more than I thought. That was a key component of the design, but there are so many places here where you just unexpectedly run into people. In the cafeteria, at the coffee bar, outside when you’re going across the pathway. Also, there's a connection here to Steve that is incredible and very deep. We have the theater named after him and think about him all the time, but I can feel him in other spaces too.
它促进了比我想象的更多的合作。这是设计的关键组成部分,但这里有很多地方你会意外地碰到人们。在餐厅、咖啡吧、走在小道上时也会遇到人。此外,这里与史蒂夫的联系是难以置信的,且非常深刻。我们有一个以他命名的剧院,我们一直在思念他,但我也能在其他空间感受到他的存在。

You mention the Steve Jobs Theater, which was designed with product keynotes in mind. Now you launch products with pretaped videos. Will you ever go back to live presentations?
你提到史蒂夫·乔布斯剧院,它是专门为产品发布会设计的。现在你们通过预录的视频发布产品。你们会回到现场发布会吗?

During Covid we learned the audience is primarily online. Very few people can fit in the theater, and we wanted to have more people engaged in the announcement itself. You can do that a lot more productively on tape than you can live because of the transitions on stage and so forth.
在疫情期间,我们了解到观众主要是在网上。剧院能容纳的人很少,而我们希望让更多人参与到发布会中。通过预录视频,你能比现场发布会更高效地呈现内容,因为舞台上的转场等等。

But don’t you miss the vibe of a live keynote?
但你不怀念现场发布会的氛围吗?

I do miss it. I do miss it.
我确实怀念。我确实怀念。

The DOJ and 19 states, along with the District of Columbia, filed suit against Apple this year. One assistant attorney general charged that Apple was “a self-interested monopolist.” There are also government suits against other Big Tech companies. Do you think that the public, as well as the government, has shifted its view of Apple and other Big Tech companies?
美国司法部和19个州以及哥伦比亚特区今年对苹果提起诉讼。一位副检察长指控苹果是“一个以自利为目的的垄断者”。还有其他大科技公司也面临政府诉讼。你认为公众以及政府是否已经改变了对苹果和其他大科技公司的看法?

When you talk about something such as alleging some kind of conduct, you should talk about a specific company and what is the conduct, and not group things together.
当你谈论诸如指控某种行为时,你应该具体讨论某家公司以及其行为,而不是将它们混为一谈。

Granted, everyone’s got their own lawsuit. What’s the response to the one against Apple?
每个人都有自己的诉讼。那么对于对苹果的诉讼,你有什么回应?

It’s completely misguided as to what we have done. Our users know this. We always put ourselves in the shoes of the user and ask what is best for them, what is best for their privacy, what is best for their security. That’s the story. We’ll tell it to a judge and see how that goes.
这完全误解了我们所做的事情。我们的用户知道这一点。我们始终站在用户的角度考虑,问自己什么对他们最好,什么对他们的隐私和安全最好。这就是我们的故事。我们会向法官讲述我们的立场,看结果如何。

How long do you see yourself as CEO of Apple?
你认为自己会担任苹果CEO多久?

I get asked that question now more than I used to.
现在比以前更多人问我这个问题。

Why is that?
为什么会这样?

As I age, as my hair turns gray. I love this place, Steven. It's a privilege of a lifetime to be here. And I'll do it until the voice in my head says, “It's time,” and then I'll go and focus on what the next chapter looks like. But it's hard to imagine life without Apple, because my life has been wrapped up in this company since 1998. It's the overwhelming majority of my adult life. And so I love it.
随着年龄的增长,头发变白。我爱这里,Steven。能在这里工作是我一生的荣幸。我会一直做下去,直到我心中的声音说:“是时候了”,然后我会去专注于下一章的生活。但很难想象没有苹果的生活,因为自1998年以来,我的生活几乎全都与这家公司紧密相连。这占据了我成年生活的大部分。所以,我热爱它。

You’ve said that it’s up to others to determine your legacy, but what do you think Apple’s legacy is?
你曾说过,由别人来决定你的遗产,那么你认为苹果的遗产是什么?

It’s up to others to determine that as well. But I think Apple will be remembered for delivering great products that changed the world, that really improved people’s lives. Our users feel it when they go into an Apple Store. They feel it when they use the products. I got so many messages when the hurricane hit in North Carolina and people discovered that they had the ability to SOS and to message people when the cellular network was down. This reminds people of why we do what we do and how much we care. That will be Apple’s legacy.
这也由别人来决定。但我认为苹果将因提供改变世界的伟大产品而被铭记,这些产品真正改善了人们的生活。我们的用户在进入苹果店时能感受到这一点,使用产品时也能感受到。当北卡罗来纳州遭遇飓风时,我收到了很多消息,人们发现他们在手机网络中断时仍能使用SOS功能和发送信息。这让人们想起我们做这些事情的原因,以及我们有多么关心他们。这将是苹果的遗产。

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