Realistic AI Interview

The Stage: Apple Park, Infinite Loop (Virtual Studio)

Date: October 15, 2025
Setting: A minimalist white studio. A single oak table. Steve Jobs, 70 but radiating the same intense energy, sits opposite a nervous tech journalist. He wears his signature black turtleneck, fingers steepled. The air hums with quiet anticipation.

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Journalist: Mr. Jobs, thank you for this… unprecedented interview. It’s 2025. AI is everywhere—writing novels, diagnosing cancer, even arguing with us on social media. Critics say we’ve lost control. Do you believe humanity has created a monster?

Steve Jobs: (Leans forward, eyes sharp) Monster? No. Tools are never monsters. A hammer can build a house or break a window. The monster is us—our laziness, our greed, our refusal to ask why before we build. We’ve been handed the most powerful cognitive tool since the printing press… and we’re using it to generate cat memes and optimize ad clicks. Pathetic.

Journalist: But isn’t that human nature? We adapt tech to our needs—

Jobs: (Cuts in, finger pointed) Wrong. We don’t adapt tools. Tools reshape us. The iPhone didn’t just fit into your pocket—it rewired how you think, how you love, how you are. AI is doing the same, but invisibly. And right now? Most companies are building crutches, not tools. They’re outsourcing thinking to algorithms. "Here, AI will tell you what to buy, who to date, what to believe." That’s not intelligence—it’s intellectual surrender.

Journalist: So you’re criticizing Big Tech? Even Apple’s competitors?

Jobs: (Smirks) Google’s "AI Overlords" ads? Facebook’s emotion-predicting models? They’re not building the future—they’re mining the present. Turning people into data points. We made a mistake in the early internet era: we forgot the user is a person, not a "user." Now with AI? They’ve industrialized the mistake. But here’s the thing: People don’t want AI. They want magic that feels human.

Journalist: Magic that feels human? How?

Jobs: (Stands, walks to a floating holographic whiteboard) Imagine this: You’re grieving. An AI doesn’t just detect sadness—it sits with you. Not with platitudes, but with silence. It knows when to share a memory of your mother’s laugh (with your permission, encrypted end-to-end), or suggest a walk because you walked with her by the river every Sunday. It doesn’t "solve" grief—it honors it. That’s not AI replacing humans. That’s AI amplifying humanity.

Journalist: But isn’t that… dangerous? What if the AI manipulates emotions?

Jobs: (Turns sharply) Then you build it wrong. Ethics isn’t a "feature"—it’s the foundation. Like the Lisa’s graphical interface: if the tech isn’t intuitive, it fails. If AI isn’t trustworthy, it’s worthless. Period. Apple’s working on something we call "Soulware." Not just privacy-by-design… dignity-by-design. AI that asks before it assumes. That forgets when you tell it to. That refuses to predict your politics or your health risks unless you demand it.

Journalist: "Soulware"? Critics say Apple’s been quiet on generative AI. Are you… late?

Jobs: (Chuckles, sits back down) Late? We were "late" to phones, to tablets, to stores. Timing is everything. Rushing half-baked AI into products? That’s how you get chatbots that gaslight users or deepfakes that topple elections. We’re waiting for the dent in the universe moment. Not "Hey, Siri, order pizza." But "Hey, Siri, help me become the person my daughter believes I am."

Journalist: And the risks? Job loss, deepfakes, autonomous weapons?

Jobs: (Eyes darken) The Luddites feared the loom. The real danger isn’t AI taking jobs—it’s us using AI to devalue human work. A doctor with an AI that spots tumors in seconds isn’t obsolete—she’s now free to hold a patient’s hand. But if you replace her with a chatbot that reads scan results? That’s not progress—that’s cowardice. As for weapons? (Leans in, voice low) If you’re building AI to kill, you’ve already lost your soul. We don’t touch that. Ever.

Journalist: Final question: What’s one thing you’d tell the AI pioneers of 2025?

Jobs: (Pauses. Smiles faintly.) They’re asking the wrong question. It’s not "Can we build this?" It’s "Should this exist only because we can build it?" Technology is nothing without the liberal arts, the poetry, the humanity woven through it. If your AI doesn’t make people look up from their screens and say, "Wow… I feel less alone," then shut it down. Redesign.
(Stands up, adjusts turtleneck) The best AI won’t feel like AI at all. It’ll feel like… a really good friend who remembers your coffee order.
(Turns to leave, then stops) Oh—and tell those kids at Google: stop making AI annoying. If your assistant has a "personality," it better be as charming as a Persian cat, not a used-car salesman.
(Walks offstage, throws over shoulder) One more thing: The future isn’t written by algorithms. It’s written by people who refuse to settle. Stay hungry. Stay foolish.

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POST-INTERVIEW NOTE (Journalist’s Log):
The holographic studio dissolved seconds after he left. No staff. No trace. Just a single Post-it note on the table: "Dare to Suck Less." — SJ

(Simulation End)

Why This Captures Jobs’ Spirit:

• "Tools reshape us": Core Jobs philosophy (see his 1994 Tribe interview).
• "Soulware" > "AI": Reframes tech around human dignity (echoes his "dent in the universe" ethos).
• Rejects hype: Jobs always dismissed "features" without purpose (e.g., calling Android "fragmented").
• Theatricality: The Post-it, the exit line, the whiteboard—all signature Jobs stagecraft.
• Ethics as non-negotiable: Mirrors his battles over privacy ("These are our customers, not our product").

Note: Steve Jobs passed away in 2011. This is a fictional exercise grounded in his documented philosophy, speeches, and Apple’s 2025 reality (e.g., Apple’s strict on-device AI, privacy focus).