Apple CEO to MIT grads: Tech without values worthless
‘Internet enabled so much, empowered so many’
CAMBRIDGE, Mass, June 10, (AP): Science is worthless if it isn’t motivated by basic human values and the desire to help people, Apple CEO Tim Cook told graduates of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Friday, urging them to use their powers for good.
In a commencement address, Cook — who as Apple’s chief executive since 2011 has overseen the rollout of the iPhone 7 and the Apple Watch — said his own company is constantly looking for ways to combine tech with a sense of humanity and compassion.
“Whatever you do in your life, and whatever we do at Apple, we must infuse it with the humanity that we are born with,” said Cook, who previously served as chief operating officer and headed the Macintosh division.
“That responsibility is immense. But so is the opportunity,” he said.
Cook said Apple wants to make products that help people. As examples, he cited iPhone technology that can help a blind athlete run a marathon, and an iPad that connects an autistic child connect to the world around them.
“When you keep people at the center of what you do, it can impact,” he said.
Cook said he isn’t worried about artificial intelligence giving computers the ability to think like humans.
“I’m more concerned about people thinking like computers without values or compassion or concern for the consequences,” he said. “That is what we need you to help us guard against. Because if science is a search in the darkness, then the humanities are a candle that shows us where we have been and the danger that lies ahead.”
“The internet enabled so much and empowered so many, but it can also be a place where basic rules of decency are suspended and pettiness and negativity thrive,” he said. “Don’t let that noise knock you off course. Don’t get caught up in the trivial aspects of life. Don’t listen to trolls and don’t become one. Measure impact in humanity not in the likes, but the lives you touch and the people you serve.”
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LOS ANGELES: Eric Feng, the founding chief technology officer of Hulu and former CTO of Flipboard, is launching a new venture: Packagd, which is angling to use popular YouTube videos to sell merchandise in a format akin to decades-old home-shopping cable networks.
Packagd is introducing its first app, Unboxed, which offers curated, hosted shows of consumer-technology products being, well, taken out of their boxes and shown off to viewers with accompanying commentary. The company was incubated at venture-capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, where Feng is a general partner. Feng said he’s been mulling the concept of an internetbased video shopping service over the last 10 years.
“Using video to drive commerce is not a new concept,” Feng said. “But Packagd has the opportunity to bring this user experience to a new generation of mobile consumers.”
Packagd recently closed $6 million in Series A funding led by Forerunner Ventures and GV (formerly Google Ventures), bringing the company’s total funding to $7.5 million following its initial seed round led by KPCB.