In a new interview with Wired this week, Apple CEO Tim Cook opened up about his relationship with the late Steve Jobs, sharing how the legendary founder’s vision convinced him Apple would thrive, even when critics thought it was doomed.
“If you remember, Michael Dell had said if he was the CEO, he would shut Apple down and just return whatever assets were left to the shareholders,” Cook said. “Michael just said what most everyone else thought.”
But a conversation with Jobs in 1998 changed everything. “When I came out to talk to Steve about working at Apple, it felt so alive and so different. He was passionate about the product, about Apple, and its purpose,” Cook said. “From that point, I never thought that Apple would be going out of business.”
Cook would go on to join Apple, leaving a secure position at Compaq despite warnings from colleagues about Apple’s precarious state. (Mind you, this was years before the iPod, iTunes, and iPhone came along, marking what many consider to be Apple’s renaissance.) After Jobs’ death in 2011, Cook took over as CEO, overseeing the company’s transformation into one of the world’s most valuable brands.
Here are some other key remarks from the interview:
Cook goes to Steve Jobs’ old office for inspiration
More than a decade after Jobs’ death, his old office at Apple’s former headquarters, One Infinite Loop, remains intact. Cook revealed that he still visits the office occasionally, finding inspiration in the space where Jobs worked.
“No one’s ever moved in there,” Cook told Wired. “I like my connection back to Steve, and I like the company’s connection back to Steve. From him emanates our values and our DNA.”
The office serves as a touchstone for Cook and a reminder of Jobs’ enduring influence on Apple’s culture. While Apple Park now serves as the company’s headquarters, One Infinite Loop, in Cupertino, California, remains a symbol of the company’s history.
AI is about to ‘reinvent’ everything at Apple
As Apple navigates a new era of technological innovation, Cook sees artificial intelligence as the next transformative chapter for the company.
“AI will reinvent and provide a new era and a new chapter for iPhone, iPad, and the Mac,” Cook said during the interview. “We’re just at the beginning.”
Cook highlighted AI’s potential to reshape how users interact with Apple’s products, making them more intuitive and capable of handling complex, multi-step tasks. While Siri remains a cornerstone of Apple’s AI efforts, Cook suggested that significant advancements are on the horizon.
“I think more people will have a relationship with Siri because it will become more personally relevant and be able to take tasks off your plate,” he said.
For Cook, AI holds the same groundbreaking potential as the iPhone’s introduction of multi-touch technology, which revolutionized smartphones. With AI, he believes Apple is poised to usher in a new era of innovation, much like it has done in decades past.