Apple wants people to love its products without having to think about whether artificial intelligence made them work, chief executive John Ternus told WIRED. The interview, conducted by Steven Levy and published Friday, Oct. 30, offers the clearest look yet at how the company's newest leader plans to approach AI.

“We don’t want to ship AI for AI’s sake,” Ternus said.

Levy spoke with Ternus this week at Apple’s Los Angeles launch of the touchscreen MacBook Pro. Ternus, 51, has spent 25 years at Apple and has been chief executive for less than two months. He said he hopes people will see that Apple’s work is about building products that make their lives better, and he said the company is “absolutely going to” use AI to do that.

How does Apple's CEO view AI in its products?

The company's standard, he said, is simpler than whether a feature is labeled AI. “When we’re doing it right, people won’t have to think about whether it was AI that made this happen or more traditional software,” Ternus said. “What matters is, did we build something that they really love?”

Agents, regulation and security

Will Apple ship AI agents?

Levy asked about AI agents, software that could replace today’s ways of using a computer and carry out more work on its own. Ternus did not rule that out, but he suggested that building products remains a human pursuit.

“That could make life really easy, I suppose, but the creation of products is a deeply human and personal thing, something that we love to do,” he said.

How is Apple approaching AI security?

Ternus also did not say whether he favors AI regulation. He said he reads the stories about AI and thinks about them “from a cybersecurity standpoint.” “Clearly these models are very capable of doing things,” he said. “Our focus is on making sure that our products are secure and safe, and protecting the users’ information.”

Cook’s new role and a focus on products

Tim Cook handed the top job to Ternus on Sept. 1 and is now Apple’s executive chairman. Ternus said he still consults Cook, who is available to help whenever he asks. “Tim is available to help wherever I ask him, and it’s great to have him in that role,” Ternus said.

Asked which business leaders inspire him, Ternus said he had not really thought about it. He said he had only “a handful of interactions” with Steve Jobs but has always felt like “sort of a student of Steve’s teachings.” He added that one of the privileges of the job is learning many new things, and that he plans to keep going deeper into new areas.

“But, you know, I do love product. I’m super passionate about it,” he said.

Two of his senior executives said the same. Johny Srouji, Apple’s chief hardware officer, called Ternus “a product guy at heart.” Greg Joswiak, head of worldwide marketing, said Ternus has a great sense for great products. “You can’t teach that,” Joswiak told WIRED.

Ternus has also spoken about other pressures on the business. He told TIME that the memory chip shortage is a crisis. Bloomberg reported in September that he is cutting managers to ship products faster.

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