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96<h1>AI Is Technology, Not a Product</h1>
97<h6 class="dateline">Saturday, 16 May 2026</h6>
98
99<p>Steven Levy, writing for Wired last month after Apple’s CEO transition was announced, under the provocative headline “<a href="https://www.wired.com/story/apples-next-ceo-needs-to-launch-a-killer-ai-product/">Apple’s Next CEO Needs to Launch a Killer AI Product</a>” (<a href="https://apple.news/AdCC7y43rTQq6SZH2bDmqxA">News+ link</a> to get around Wired’s miserly paywall):</p>
100
101<blockquote>
102  <p>Much more recently, <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/apple-50-year-anniversary-artificial-intelligence-iphone/">I quizzed Ternus</a> and global marketing
103head Greg Joswiak about Apple’s future, specifically its plans to
104get ahead of the AI transformation. Ternus acknowledged that AI is
105“an immense kind of inflection point,” but couched it as one of
106many leaps that Apple has navigated. Each hit product — the Apple
107II, the Mac, iTunes, the iPod, the iPhone, iPad — piggybacked on
108a previous product. “We never think about shipping a technology,”
109he said. “We want to ship amazing products, features, and
110experiences, and we don’t want our customers to think about what
111[underlying] technology makes it possible. That’s the way we think
112about AI.”</p>
113
114<p>That’s fine, but I look back to the mid-2000s when everybody was
115waiting for Apple to come out with a phone. When Jobs finally
116delivered in January 2007, the product defined the mobile era.
117It’s a big ask for Ternus to do something similar for the AI age — but it’s an opportunity that must be seized. AI threatens to
118disrupt the entire iPhone ecosystem. By the end of this decade,
119it’s unlikely that people will swipe on their phones to tap on
120Uber or Lyft. They will just tell their always-on AI agent to get
121them home. Or that agent will have already figured out where they
122need to go, and the car will be waiting without the friction of a
123request. “There’s an app for that,” may be replaced by “Let the
124agent do that.”</p>
125</blockquote>
126
127<p>I’m a huge longtime Steven Levy fan, but this is nonsense. It’s hard to read this and not worry that he too has lost his mind to the AI snake-oil hypesters. What Ternus told him is exactly right. The Apple way is never to ship a technology. The iPod wasn’t about MP3 files. It wasn’t about <a href="https://www.wired.com/2006/10/straight-dope-on-the-ipods-birth/">1.8-inch hard drives</a>. It was about music. The iPhone did define the mobile era (which we’re still very much in), but Apple doesn’t need to capitalize on every single market the mobile era opened up. Social media is a defining component of the mobile era. It comprises the entirety of Meta’s value and a sizable slice of Google’s (via YouTube). Apple doesn’t have a social network business. It’s fine — because the way people consume and create social media is using their phones.</p>
128
129<p>Does AI “threaten to disrupt the entire iPhone ecosystem”? It’s possible, but it doesn’t seem nearly as likely to me as Levy asserts. <em>Changing</em> the iPhone ecosystem? Sure — that’s already true. <em>Obviating</em> the iPhone ecosystem? I don’t see it. Levy’s argument reminds me of the hype around “the cloud” when that first became a term. It’s so meaningless when used broadly (e.g. “<em>Everything will soon be in the cloud</em>”) that it could mean anything. It’s step #2 in the <a href="https://southpark.fandom.com/wiki/Underpants_Gnomes">gnomes-stealing-underpants</a> master plan.</p>
130
131<p>The idea that AI agents “will have already figured out where [we] need to go, and the car will be waiting without the friction of a request” strikes me as pure fever dream high-on-the-hype fantasy. I’m just going to step outside a restaurant when I’m done eating a meal and a ride-share is going to be there, waiting for me, without my having hailed it? Every time? And I’m going to find this pleasing, not creepy? And ride-share drivers are going to respond to all these requests, because the requests will never be wrong? And this is going to happen, somehow, without my carrying a phone with me? And this is going to happen in the next four years? I don’t think I’d want this even if it were plausible, but it doesn’t sound plausible.</p>
132
133<p>Actual products have to be real. Actual experiences have to rely on actual products. How exactly in Levy’s end-of-this-decade scenario will we tell our “always-on AI agent” to get us home? What microphone is listening to the command? What speaker is telling us the request was understood and acted upon? What screen do we look at to see how far away the hailed car is? I’d bet a pretty large sum of money that in 2030, when someone hails a ride-share vehicle to take them home, the most common product they’ll use to do that will be their phone. Whether they’re doing it via a verbal command issued to an “always-on AI agent” or good old tapping and swiping, it’ll be a phone.</p>
134
135<p>If you think that people will buy smaller devices to replace their phones, and use those to talk to “always-on AI agents” instead, you have to answer some questions. What c

135ompany is the best in the world at making smaller-than-phone personal computing devices? What device will people use as their camera? What device will people use as their screen, for watching videos, playing games, texting, and (one hopes) reading? My answers to those three questions: Apple, phone, phone. Why would smaller devices — you know, like watches, earbuds, and, say, glasses — work independently rather than pair with the phone that you’re almost certainly still going to be carrying with you?</p>
136
137<p>Only a fool would argue that Apple can stand on the sidelines and ignore AI. It’s very different from, say, social media that way. Social media doesn’t pervade everything in technology. You can ignore social media as a user. (And you’re probably more productive, and happier, if you do.) A company can eschew social media as a business. AI, on the other hand, is pervasive. It can’t be ignored. But it’s just technology.</p>
138
139<p>Wireless networking is pervasive too. But Apple doesn’t have “a killer wireless networking product”.<sup id="fnr1-2026-05-16"><a href="#fn1-2026-05-16">1</a></sup> Wireless networking simply pervades everything Apple makes. I’m hard pressed to think of a single product Apple makes that doesn’t use some combination of Wi-Fi, cellular, Bluetooth, and proprietary wireless protocols. There was a time, not <em>too</em> long ago, when Apple didn’t make a single product with wireless connectivity. Now it’s pervasive in all their devices. That’s more what AI is going to be like. There’s not going to be one “killer AI device”. Everything is going to be an AI device, to some extent, just like how everything today is a wireless connectivity device, to some extent.</p>
140
141<p><strong>Postscript:</strong> “<a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/05/18/existing-stakeholders-have-a-say-in-the-future">Existing Stakeholders Have a Say in the Future</a>”.</p>
142
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144<hr />
145<ol>
146<li id="fn1-2026-05-16">
147<p>AirPort qualified, arguably. But Apple walked away from it, alas.&nbsp;<a href="#fnr1-2026-05-16"  class="footnoteBackLink"  title="Jump back to footnote 1 in the text.">&#x21A9;&#xFE0E;</a></p>
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