Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak isn't at all impressed by ChatGPT

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It can "make horrible mistakes."

iPhone Siri OpenAI
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ChatGPT might be everywhere right now and it's definitely got the technology community all lathered up. But there's one founding member of that community that really isn't all that impressed.

Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple, says that while ChatGPT can definitely be of use and is "pretty impressive," he's still worried that it can "make horrible mistakes."

Wozniak was speaking with CNBC's Squark Box and was asked about the increasing popularity of the AI robot.

Pretty impressive

While Wozniak, who famously wasn't impressed with Apple's best iPhone back in 2021, admits that ChatGPT is "pretty impressive" he still believes that there are problems.

“The trouble is it does good things for us, but it can make horrible mistakes by not knowing what humanness is,” he said when speaking to CNBC.

Wozniak also spoke about the AI that's used in cars, like Tesla's Autopilot. He doesn't seem to be impressed with that, either, saying that "you know what other cars might be about to do right now, because you know humans.” That isn't something that a computer can replicate, at least not yet.

There is little doubt that AI like ChatGPT isn't going anywhere just yet, and we can surely expect that it will grow in capabilities and scope as the years unfold. For now many of us would just be happy with a HomePod that can reliably answer questions and follow commands. Given the way Siri still stumbles on such things it's clear things aren't quite there yet.

But ChatGPT is a step ahead of Siri, for not at least. Whether or not you agree with Wozniak's outlook, he isn't alone. CNBC notes that investor Mark Cuban has similar concerns.

“Twitter and Facebook, to an extent, are democratic within the filters that an Elon [Musk] or [Mark] Zuckerberg or whoever else puts [on them],” Cuban reportedly told John Stewart's podcast. “Once these things start taking on a life of their own ... the machine itself will have an influence, and it will be difficult for us to define why and how the machine makes the decisions it makes, and who controls the machine.”

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.