Apple Didn’t Mention AI for 28 Minutes at WWDC 2026

Is AI a positive term in your household? A recent NBC News national survey revealed what most of us already knew: AI is one of the least-liked things in America, with only 26% of respondents viewing it positively. So maybe it’s no surprise that at Apple’s WWDC event on Monday, no one mentioned the term AI for 28 minutes. And even after that, Apple presenters mostly stuck to using the company’s own name for its AI, Apple Intelligence.

It’s easy to see why the term AI is like the electrified third rail at a huge public event like WWDC. I’m sure that when Apple was planning the presentation, it was well aware of the negative connotations and told presenters to avoid saying “AI” whenever possible.

The term “Apple Intelligence” draws on any good associations people may have with Apple itself. Whereas saying AI, or artificial intelligence, makes me think of The Terminator, or the fact that I have a kid graduating from high school next week, and many of her dream jobs are likely to be taken by AI long before she ever nabs that college degree.

Just because Apple didn’t use the term AI doesn’t mean it wasn’t woven throughout the first two hours of the WWDC keynote. 

Call something whatever you want. Kentucky Fried Chicken changed its name to KFC, but it didn’t stop frying chicken. Remember Poltergeist? “You moved the gravestones, but you didn’t move the bodies!” You changed the name you use for it, but it’s still AI buried under the swimming pool.

I’m resigned to being a Gen X dinosaur on this issue. One of the segments that sticks in my head from WWDC explained a photo editing feature called Spatial Reframing. A father took a photograph of his two kids on their last day of school and used the feature to reframe them against a different part of the background, essentially repositioning a bad camera angle. Apple Intelligence generated new content to fill in the gaps created by the shift. People online are raving about adding this AI addition to their photo toolbox.

I… guess the photo looks marginally better? Is that enough to warrant making up content to paint over a real photo of a real moment in your children’s lives? 

I have a precious few black-and-white snapshots of my dad as a Marine on Okinawa and in Hawaii during World War II. They’re not well-framed. They were probably taken by a fellow Marine who’d never taken a photography class in his life.

I’m sure AI (sorry — Apple Intelligence) could make them look slick and professional. But when I hold these photos in my hand, I know every bit of them is real, that his uniform and devil-may-care smile and bottle of beer are all genuine. That’s enough for me.