Former Steve Jobs Intern: AI Would Be ‘Top Of Mind’

DataStax CEO Chet Kapoor was once an intern for the late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.

He worked for Jobs from 1989 to 1993 as a campus consultant intern at a computer company Jobs founded, NeXT, and says that if Jobs were alive today, he would be thinking about AI.

“If he was around for the last 10 years, I guarantee you it [AI] would’ve been top of mind for him,” Kapoor told Quartz reporter Rocio Fabbro on Thursday. “He was always somebody in my mind, his biggest gift to us was bringing liberal arts and computer science together to give us the products he gave us.”

^{Steve Jobs in 2010. Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images}

Apple, meanwhile, has been gradually exploring AI for the iPhone, iPad and Mac. Earlier this week, Apple released a new software update that brings ChatGPT to its products. Now, iPhone users can direct questions to ChatGPT through Siri and generate images with ChatGPT to accompany text.

Related: Apple Is Adding ChatGPT to iPhones This Week. Here’s How It Works.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said in an interview with Wired last week that AI ushers in a new era for all Apple products.

“I think it changes the way you interface with the product,” Cook said.

Cook mentioned Jobs as well in the interview, stating that Apple’s headquarters at Apple Park reminded him of Jobs.

“There’s a connection here to Steve that is incredible and very deep,” Cook said. “We have the theater named after him and think about him all the time, but I can feel him in other spaces too.”

Related: 4 Things Steve Jobs Taught Me About Succeeding as an Entrepreneur