Wozniak: no AI has 'thought' yet

Steve Wozniak’s latest AI remark landed not in a TV studio or product launch, but at a university commencement. The Apple co-founder told Grand Valley State University graduates on May 1-2 that they already had “AI” — “actual intelligence” — a line that drew laughs and applause, according to Business Insider and local coverage. The moment stood out because other graduation speakers have recently drawn boos when talking up artificial intelligence. Wozniak’s phrasing went the other way: he put the emphasis on human judgment first, and on software second. Business Insider reported that he used the speech to reassure graduates entering a labor market shaped by AI rather than to tell them to submit to it. (africa.businessinsider.com) ### Why did this line get attention when so many AI comments blur together? Business Insider reported on May 21 that Wozniak’s “actual intelligence” line was the part of the speech that caught on. The quote was short, legible, and easy to repost, and it arrived during a commencement season in which students had already reacted sharply to more boosterish AI rhetoric from other speakers. (africa.businessinsider.com) WGVU, which covered the ceremony on May 4, quoted Wozniak saying, “We have AI today – you all have AI: actual intelligence.” That framing turned AI from a force acting on graduates into a tool being measured against them. ### What was Wozniak actually arguing about AI? Wozniak said at the ceremony that AI remains an attempt to reproduce brain-like routines rather than proof that machines are thinking in a human sense. (africa.businessinsider.com) Business Insider quoted him saying, “It would take too long to go deeply into what I think about AI, but we’ve been trying to create a brain,” and, “AI is one of those attempts.” (wgvunews.org) WGVU’s account showed the same hierarchy in a different way. Wozniak said that at Apple, “ease of use” meant “the human being is more important than the technology,” and that technologists had to do the work to make products function in a way that was intuitive to people. ### Where did he say it, and what was the setting? Grand Valley State University announced on April 14 that Wozniak would speak at three commencement ceremonies in Grand Rapids, Michigan, at Van Andel Arena. (africa.businessinsider.com) The university said he was scheduled for 7 p.m. on May 1 and 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. on May 2. The university also said Wozniak was the guest speaker for all three ceremonies and that a livestream would be available on its commencement webpage. (wgvunews.org) A separate commencement program page listed him in the order of ceremony, and WGVU later reported that more than 3,200 graduates were celebrated across the three events. ### Why does this keep resonating in engineering and product circles? (gvsu.edu) Wozniak has been publicly skeptical of claims that current AI systems are close to replacing human understanding. Earlier 2026 coverage reported that he was “disappointed” by many AI results and rarely used the tools himself, a view consistent with the commencement remarks. That makes the graduation line useful beyond the ceremony itself. (gvsu.edu) Engineers and managers trying to talk about AI without sounding either alarmist or evangelical now have a compact formulation: software can be powerful, but it is still supposed to serve human users. Grand Valley State University said recordings of the May 1-2 ceremonies are available through its commencement page, where Wozniak’s full remarks can be reviewed in context. (techspot.com)