Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, says Apple Intelligence is aimed at everyday people rather than the AI believers chasing superintelligence. He also said Apple does not feel threatened by the companies pushing AI further and faster.
The comments come from a TIME profile of Apple CEO John Ternus by Andrew R. Chow, part of the magazine’s Best Inventions of 2026 package. Chow describes Apple’s approach as a modest, personalized and privacy-focused AI meant to help ordinary people during a public backlash against the technology. Joswiak called the other camp Silicon Valley’s “lunatic fringe.”
Joswiak says superintelligence chasers are not Apple’s target
Joswiak was clear that Apple has no problem with heavy AI users. “We love them, and they can use it too, but that’s not our target,” he said. The focus is making AI better for everyday people.
That fits how Apple has built the new Siri, which launched in the US in September. Lilian Rincon, who leads Apple’s AI product efforts, said the company designed it on purpose to not be a companion and to avoid replacing human connection.
The new Siri runs on an Apple model that uses Google’s Gemini technology, and the profile points out that it cannot code like OpenAI’s Codex or write as well as Anthropic’s Claude. What it can do, with a user’s permission, is pull from messages, emails, calendars, documents and Apple Watch health data to help with things like preparing for a meeting or finding a flight confirmation.
Apple unveiled Apple Intelligence in June 2024, 18 months after ChatGPT arrived, and then spent more than two years struggling to deliver the personalized Siri it had promised.
Privacy and tight integration are Apple’s answer to AI rivals
Siri handles requests on the device where it can. Heavier requests go to Private Cloud Compute, a system of Apple servers designed so queries are not stored or made available to the company. Apple has opened parts of it to independent security researchers, some of whom have praised the approach while pointing to limits in how transparent it is.
Joswiak’s argument for why Apple is not worried comes down to integration. Because Apple controls the hardware, software and services together, he said, it can build a better experience than anyone else. Apple has 2.5 billion active devices to build on.
Ternus made a similar case in the same profile. Even if rivals do reach superintelligence, he argued, people will still want to talk to it on a device, and the iPhone is where they take pictures, send messages and look at loved ones. Apple is extending the same approach to the home with HomeView, the smart display it announced on October 13, which is powered by Apple Intelligence.
Some Mac users want Apple Intelligence gone
Apple’s pitch is aimed at people who want AI to simply work, but the storage cost is already a sore point. Apple Intelligence is taking 20GB to 30GB on some Macs running macOS 27 Golden Gate, and a new tool called RemoveMacAI strips it out and frees about 12GB.
Our Take
Apple has picked a lane and plans to stay in it. Most iPhone and Mac owners want Siri to find a flight confirmation or prep them for a meeting, and a chatbot to debate philosophy with is a low priority.
“Fringe” is a risky word, though. Plenty of regular people already use ChatGPT every day, and Siri AI will have to hold up against the tools they know.
