Steve Wozniak has seen a few tech revolutions in his time. He built the first Apple computer. He watched the internet go mainstream. He's been around long enough to know the difference between real innovation and hype cycles. So when Woz says he's "disappointed a lot" by AI and rarely uses it, that's worth paying attention to.
In a recent interview, the Apple co-founder didn't mince words about the current state of artificial intelligence. He's not impressed. This isn't some technophobe grandstanding - this is an engineer who shipped products that actually changed how billions of people live. When he critiques technology, he's doing it from a position of having built things that worked.
What's disappointing him? The gap between promise and reality. AI companies are racing to slap "AI-powered" labels on everything, but Wozniak sees through the marketing. He's testing these tools, and they're not delivering the magic the press releases promise. Chatbots hallucinate facts. Image generators can't count fingers. Code assistants write plausible-looking garbage that doesn't compile.
The tech works - that's not the issue. The issue is that it works about as well as a smart intern who's confidently wrong 20% of the time. That's useful in some contexts. It's not the revolution being sold.
Wozniak isn't a Luddite. He's an engineer with high standards. He built the machines that actually delivered on their promises. Today's AI? It overpromises and underdelivers. When someone with his track record says he rarely uses it, maybe the rest of us should ask why.
The technology is impressive. The question is whether anyone actually needs it to do the things it currently does well. Wozniak's answer appears to be: not really.
