Steve Jobs Would Have Loved AI, and Been Hated for It
Steve Jobs Would Have Loved AI, and Been Hated for It
TBPN (The Business of Business Podcast Newsletter), September 9, 2026, by Brandon Gorrell and Jackson Fordyce.
The headline hook
The lede is a 1985 Steve Jobs quote — from the Playboy interview, or a similar pre-Macintosh-era source — that reads as a description of what ChatGPT would eventually become. Jobs talking about computers as “bicycles for the mind,” or specifically about the potential for machines to offload cognitive work, frames the essay’s argument: Jobs would have embraced AI tools aggressively, and been despised for doing so by the people who now claim his legacy.
Items in this issue
Meta’s Muse — Meta launched its personal AI agent (branded “Muse”) built on top of the core Meta AI product. Distributed through WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger, it makes Meta one of the largest AI-native distribution platforms overnight.
Harvey — The legal AI startup raised $550M at a $15.5B valuation, led by Lightspeed and Diffusion VC. One of the largest AI-native law-tech rounds on record. Validates the thesis that professional services (law, medicine, accounting) are the near-term commercial frontier for AI task automation.
Clay — Raised $115M at a $7.1B valuation. Clay builds a data enrichment and workflow automation layer on top of sales and go-to-market work — positioned at the intersection of AI and revenue operations.
Apple foldable iPhone — Reports and early leaks pointing to Apple’s first folding iPhone form factor in development.
Anthropic researcher quits — A senior Anthropic researcher resigned publicly citing concerns about the pace of AI capabilities development and the adequacy of current safety research. Adds to the public debate about whether frontier labs are moving faster than their own stated safety commitments.