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The Woz: "We've created a new species – the androids are winning!"

9to5 Staff | May 9 2011 - 6:22 am PT

Steve Wozniak photo: Bob Pearce

Relax, he was referring to synthetic organisms with human-like looks and demeanor rather than Google’s software for handsets. Steve Wozniak, Apple co-founder and the creator of the original Apple I and II computers from the mid-1970s, yesterday held an engaging commencement speech in front of the audience of Michigan State University graduates, as previously promised.

The beloved geek, the Woz gave the address alongside TIAA-CREF president and CEO Roger Ferguson Jr. Both men have received an honorary degree from the university. It was a typical commencement speech until the end, when the Apple employee #1 warned the machines are taking over. “We’ve created a new species, no question”, he said of computers and then quipped:

Every time we invent a computer to do something else, it’s doing our work for us, making ourselves less relevant. The cyborgs are winning! The androids are winning!

Check out a video clip of Woz’s speech after the break.

Wozniak, 60, is currently chief scientist for Fusion-io, a storage startup. He was recently reported as possibly considering a return to Apple, if asked. The legendary engineer explained graduates his formula of happiness: H = 3F, which stands for “Happiness equals food, friends, and fun”.

He said computers may never be able to create art because they lack human senses needed to understand things like the wind on a beach. And what will the world look like once artificial intelligence becomes mainstream?

Artificial intelligence will in the future become more and more like a real person, like a friend you would want to go and meet. Somebody that can talk to your face; somebody that can understand things [and] knows the kind of jokes you like; [somebody] that knows what sort of things to say depending on how slowly you’re talking then; a real person.