On Wednesday, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak spoke at the Apps World conference in San Francisco.
“Wozniak reserved judgment on Apple CEO Tim Cook, who took over the reins of the company shortly before Steve Jobs’ death in October 2011. Apple under Cook needs more time, he said,” Paul Krill reports for InfoWorld. “He also questioned Microsoft’s claims of innovation, arguing unsurprisingly that Apple has bested Microsoft in that area. ‘Microsoft sat there for decades, saying, ‘We’re the company of innovation, innovation, innovation.’ And I never saw anything compared to what Apple was doing.'”
“Wozniak also had harsh words for the National Security Agency’s monitoring of private citizens, which he said violates the Constitution,” Krill reports. “Wozniak said he grew up thinking his phone could be tapped only if he was doing something wrong, in which case a court-issued warrant would be required. 
“Now, they’re saying anybody can be tapped.” He warned that the United States risks becoming a police state if prosecutors and government agencies are allowed to proceed unchecked, and he stressed that there should be protections for law-abiding individuals.”
“Wozniak also doubted the ability to make computers that are conscious of what is going on around them, akin to human brain capabilities,” Krill reports. “‘We don’t understand the brain. How do we make a conscious computer?’ Still, in an interview with InfoWorld about how to successfully innovate, Wozniak described the notion of companion computers that would be able to assist people in everyday activities. They may not be conscious, but they’d be more contextual and human than today.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Not much to argue with on his first two points. What do you think about the third? Is the singularity impossible?
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