Apple CEO Tim Cook has spoken about his AR ambitions in a new interview.
The Apple head is currently in Ireland, speaking to the agency responsible for the country’s direct investment. They awarded Tim Cook to recognize Apple’s 40-year history in Ireland.
After the ceremony, Tim Cook sat down with IDA Ireland CEO Martin Shanahan to discuss Apple’s future plans in Ireland and around the world.
As first reported by Silicon Republic, Cook said that he thought augmented reality was the “next big thing,” referencing his recent visit to meet AR game developers War Ducks.
“I’m excited about AR,” Cook said during the interview.
“My view is it’s the next big thing, and it will pervade our entire lives. Yesterday, I visited a development company called War Ducks in Dublin – 15 people and they’re staffing up and using AR for games.
“You can imagine, for games, it’s incredible but even for our discussion here.
“You and I might be talking about an article and using AR we can pull it up, and can both be looking at the same thing at the same time.”
Tim added that augmented reality shouldn’t be designed to isolate, but bring people together.
“I think it’s something that doesn’t isolate people. We can use it to enhance our discussion, not substitute it for human connection, which I’ve always deeply worried about in some of the other technologies,” he said.
Cook also touched on healthcare, telling attendees that he thought the “intersection has not yet been explored very well” and that there was scope for companies like Apple in the future.
“I think you can take that simple idea of having preventive things and find many more areas where technology intersects healthcare, and I think all of our lives would probably be better off for it,” he said.
He added that the cost of providing healthcare around the world could be “fundamentally be taken down, probably in a dramatic way” with the right technology.
“Most of the money in healthcare goes to the cases that weren’t identified early enough. It will take some time but things that we are doing now – that I’m not going to talk about today – those give me a lot of cause for hope,” he added.
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