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Stephen Gary Wozniak (Template:IPAc-en; born August 11, 1950), also known by his nickname Woz, is an American technology entrepreneur, electrical engineer, computer programmer, philanthropist, and inventor. In 1976, he co-founded Apple Computer with his early business partner Steve Jobs. Through his work at Apple in the 1970s and 1980s, he is widely recognized as one of the most prominent pioneers of the personal computer revolution.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 1975, Wozniak started developing the Apple I<ref name="iWoz" />Template:Rp into the computer that launched Apple when he and Jobs first began marketing it the following year. He was the primary designer of the Apple II, introduced in 1977, known as one of the first highly successful mass-produced microcomputers,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> while Jobs oversaw the development of its foam-molded plastic case and early Apple employee Rod Holt developed its switching power supply.<ref name="mit">Template:Cite web</ref>

With human–computer interface expert Jef Raskin, Wozniak had a major influence over the initial development of the original Macintosh concepts from 1979 to 1981, when Jobs took over the project following Wozniak's brief departure from the company due to a traumatic airplane accident.<ref name=TheVerge/><ref name=wozorg>Template:Cite web</ref> After permanently leaving Apple in 1985, Wozniak founded CL 9 and created the first programmable universal remote, released in 1987. He then pursued several other businesses and philanthropic ventures throughout his career, focusing largely on technology in K–12 schools.<ref name=wozorg/>

As of June 2024, Wozniak has remained an employee of Apple in a ceremonial capacity since stepping down in 1985.<ref name="wozemployee"/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In recent years, he has helped fund multiple entrepreneurial efforts dealing in areas such as GPS and telecommunications, flash memory, technology and pop culture conventions, technical education, ecology, satellites and more.

Early life

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File:Steve Wozniak in 1968 Pegasus.jpg
Wozniak's 1968 Homestead High School yearbook photo

Stephen Gary Wozniak was born on August 11, 1950, in San Jose, California.<ref name="iWoz" />Template:Rp<ref name=biography.com>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Wizard">Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Rp<ref name="Apple Confidential"/>Template:Rp His mother, Margaret Louise Wozniak (née Kern) (1923–2014), was from Washington state,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and his father, Francis Jacob "Jerry" Wozniak (1925–1994) of Michigan,<ref name="iWoz" />Template:Rp was an engineer for the Lockheed Corporation.<ref name="Apple Confidential"/>Template:Rp Wozniak graduated from Homestead High School in 1968, in Cupertino, California.<ref name="Wizard"/>Template:Rp Steve has one brother, Mark Wozniak, a former tech executive who lives in Menlo Park. He also has one sister, Leslie Wozniak. She attended Homestead High School in Cupertino. She is a grant adviser at Five Bridges Foundation, which helps at-risk youths in San Francisco. She once said it was her mother who introduced activism to her and her siblings.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The name on Wozniak's birth certificate is "Stephan Gary Wozniak", but his mother said that she intended it to be spelled "Stephen", which is what he uses.<ref name="iWoz" />Template:Rp Wozniak is of Polish and German ancestry.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He has mentioned the surname "Wozniak" being Polish.<ref name="wozorg-polish">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="iWoz" />Template:Rp In the early 1970s, Wozniak's blue box design earned him the nickname "Berkeley Blue" in the phreaking community.<ref name=slate.com/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Wozniak has credited watching Star Trek and attending Star Trek conventions while in his youth as a source of inspiration for his starting Apple Computer.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In his autobiography, iWoz, he also credits the Tom Swift Jr. books as an inspiration for becoming an engineer.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Career

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Pre-Apple

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Template:See also In 1969, Wozniak returned to the San Francisco Bay Area after being expelled from the University of Colorado Boulder in his first year for hacking the university's computer system.<ref name=CUIndependent /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He re-enrolled at De Anza College in Cupertino before transferring to the University of California, Berkeley, in 1971.<ref name="Apple Confidential" />Template:Rp In June of that year, for a self-taught engineering project, Wozniak designed and built his first computer with his friend Bill Fernandez.<ref name="Apple Confidential" />Template:Rp

Predating useful microprocessors, screens, and keyboards, and using punch cards and only 20 TTL chips donated by an acquaintance, they named it "Cream Soda" after their favorite beverage. A newspaper reporter stepped on the power supply cable and blew up the computer, but it served Wozniak as "a good prelude to my thinking 5 years later with the Apple I and Apple II computers".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Before focusing his attention on Apple, he was employed at Hewlett-Packard (HP), where he designed calculators.<ref>Template:Cite webTemplate:Cbignore</ref> It was during this time that he dropped out of Berkeley and befriended Steve Jobs.<ref name=Jobs&Woz>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=" ABCnews" />

Wozniak was introduced to Jobs by Fernandez, who attended Homestead High School with Jobs in 1971. Jobs and Wozniak became friends when Jobs worked for the summer at HP, where Wozniak, too, was employed, working on a mainframe computer.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Template:Blockquote

File:Blue Box in museum.jpg
Steve Wozniak's blue box at the Computer History Museum

Their first business partnership began later that year when Wozniak read an article titled "Secrets of the Little Blue Box" from the October 1971 issue of Esquire, and started to build his own "blue boxes" that enabled one to make long-distance phone calls at no cost.<ref>Template:Cite book pp. 27–29</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Jobs, who handled the sales of the blue boxes, managed to sell some two hundred of them for $150 each, and split the profit with Wozniak.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Jobs later told his biographer that if it had not been for Wozniak's blue boxes, "there wouldn't have been an Apple."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

In 1973, Jobs was working for arcade game company Atari, Inc. in Los Gatos, California.<ref name="intoday1">Template:Cite magazine</ref> He was assigned to create a circuit board for the arcade video game Breakout. According to Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell, Atari offered $100 (Template:Inflation) for each chip that was eliminated in the machine. Jobs had little knowledge of circuit board design and made a deal with Wozniak to split the fee evenly between them if Wozniak could minimize the number of chips. Wozniak reduced the number of chips by 50, by using RAM for the brick representation. The fact that this prototype had no scoring or coin mechanisms meant Woz's prototype could not be used. Jobs was paid the full bonus regardless. Jobs told Wozniak that Atari gave them only $700 and that Wozniak's share was thus $350 (Template:Inflation).<ref name="breakout">Template:Cite web, Woz.org
Kent, Steven: "The Ultimate History of Video Games", pp. 71–73. Three Rivers, 2001. Template:ISBN
Template:Cite web
Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="iWoz" />Template:Rp Wozniak did not learn about the actual $5,000 bonus (Template:Inflation) until ten years later. While dismayed, he said that if Jobs had told him about it and had said he needed the money, Wozniak would have given it to him.<ref name=Isaacson>Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Rp

In 1975, Wozniak began designing and developing the computer that would eventually make him famous, the Apple I.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> With the Apple I, Wozniak was largely working to impress other members of the Palo Alto–based Homebrew Computer Club,<ref name="becomingsj"/>Template:Rp a local group of electronics hobbyists interested in computing. The club was one of several key centers which established the home hobbyist era, essentially creating the microcomputer industry over the next few decades. Unlike other custom Homebrew designs, the Apple had an easy-to-achieve video capability that drew a crowd when it was unveiled.<ref name="FireValley" />

Apple formation and success

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Template:Blockquote Template:Blockquote Template:Blockquote

File:Original 1976 Apple 1 Computer In A Briefcase.JPG
An original 1976 Apple I computer in a briefcase, from the Sydney Powerhouse Museum collection

By March 1, 1976, Wozniak completed the basic design of the Apple I computer.<ref name="Apple Confidential"/>Template:Rp He alone designed the hardware, circuit board designs, and operating system for the computer.<ref name="FireValley">Template:Cite book</ref> Wozniak originally offered the design to HP while working there, but was denied by the company on five occasions.<ref name="AI">Template:Cite web</ref> Jobs then advised Wozniak to start a business of their own to build and sell bare printed circuit boards of the Apple I.<ref name="Apple Confidential"/>Template:Rp<ref name="becomingsj">Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Rp Wozniak, at first skeptical, was later convinced by Jobs that even if they were not successful they could at least say to their grandchildren that they had had their own company. To raise the money they needed to build the first batch of the circuit boards, Wozniak sold his HP scientific calculator while Jobs sold his Volkswagen van.<ref name="Apple Confidential"/>Template:Rp<ref name="becomingsj"/>Template:Rp

On April 1, 1976, Jobs and Wozniak formed the Apple Computer Company (now called Apple Inc.) along with administrative supervisor Ronald Wayne, whose participation in the new venture was short-lived. The two decided on the name "Apple" shortly after Jobs returned from Oregon and told Wozniak about his time spent on an apple orchard there.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

After the company was formed, Jobs and Wozniak made one last trip to the Homebrew Computer Club to give a presentation of the fully assembled version of the Apple I.<ref name="becomingsj"/>Template:Rp Paul Terrell, who was starting a new computer shop in Mountain View, California, called the Byte Shop,<ref name="iWoz">Template:Cite book</ref> saw the presentation and was impressed by the machine.<ref name=Isaacson />Template:Rp Terrell told Jobs that he would order 50 units of the Apple I and pay $500 (Template:Inflation) each on delivery, but only if they came fully assembled, as he was not interested in buying bare printed circuit boards.<ref name="Apple Confidential"/>Template:Rp<ref name=Isaacson />Template:Rp

Together the duo assembled the first boards in Jobs's parents' Los Altos home; initially in his bedroom and later (when there was no space left) in the garage. Wozniak's apartment in San Jose was filled with monitors, electronic devices, and computer games that he had developed. The Apple I sold for $666.66. Wozniak later said he had no idea about the relation between the number and the mark of the beast, and that he came up with the price because he liked "repeating digits".<ref name=VintageNews>Template:Cite news</ref> They sold their first 50 system boards to Terrell later that year.Template:Clarify

Template:External media In November 1976, Jobs and Wozniak received substantial funding from a then-semi-retired Intel product marketing manager and engineer named Mike Markkula.<ref name="Markkula1997">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Apple Confidential"/>Template:Rp At the request of Markkula, Wozniak resigned from his job at HP and became the vice president in charge of research and development at Apple. Wozniak's Apple I was similar to the Altair 8800, the first commercially available microcomputer, except the Apple I had no provision for internal expansion cards. With expansion cards, the Altair could attach to a computer terminal and be programmed in BASIC. In contrast, the Apple I was a hobbyist machine. Wozniak's design included a $25 CPU (MOS 6502) on a single circuit board with 256 bytes of ROM, 4K or 8K bytes of RAM, and a 40-character by 24-row display controller. Apple's first computer lacked a case, power supply, keyboard, and displayTemplate:Emdashall components that had to be provided by the user. Eventually about 200 Apple I computers were produced in total.<ref name="wozniak198412">Template:Cite news</ref>

File:Micromodem II in Apple II.jpg
An Apple II computer with an external modem

After the success of the Apple I, Wozniak designed the Apple II, the first personal computer with the ability to display color graphics, and BASIC programming language built in.<ref name="iWoz" /> Inspired by "the technique Atari used to simulate colors on its first arcade games", Wozniak found a way of putting colors into the NTSC system by using a Template:US$ chip,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> while colors in the PAL system are achieved by "accident" when a dot occurs on a line, and he says that to this day he has no idea how it works.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> During the design stage, Jobs argued that the Apple II should have two expansion slots, while Wozniak wanted eight.<ref name="iWoz" /> After a heated argument, during which Wozniak threatened that Jobs should "go get himself another computer", they decided to go with eight slots. Jobs and Wozniak introduced the Apple II at the April 1977 West Coast Computer Faire. Wozniak's first article about the Apple II was in Byte magazine in May 1977.<ref name="The Apple-II by Woz">Template:Cite magazine</ref> It became one of the first highly successful mass-produced personal computers in the world. Wozniak also designed the Disk II floppy disk drive, released in 1978 specifically for use with the Apple II to replace the slower cassette tape storage.

In 1980, Apple went public to instant and significant financial profitability, making Jobs and Wozniak both millionaires. The Apple II's intended successor, the Apple III, released the same year, was a commercial failure and was discontinued in 1984. According to Wozniak, the Apple III "had 100 percent hardware failures", and that the primary reason for these failures was that the system was designed by Apple's marketing department, unlike Apple's previous engineering-driven projects.<ref name="byte198501"/>

File:Computer macintosh 128k, 1984 (all about Apple onlus).jpg
An original Macintosh with hardware

During the early design and development phase of the original Macintosh, Wozniak had a heavy influence over the project along with Jef Raskin, who conceived the computer. Later named the "Macintosh 128k", it would become the first mass-market personal computer featuring an integral graphical user interface and mouse. The Macintosh would also go on to introduce the desktop publishing industry with the addition of the Apple LaserWriter, the first laser printer to feature vector graphics.<ref>Template:Cite web See May 3, 1984.</ref> In a 2013 interview, Wozniak said that in 1981, "Steve [Jobs] really took over the project when I had a plane crash and wasn't there."<ref name=wozorg/><ref name=TheVerge/>

Plane crash and temporary leave from Apple

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On February 7, 1981, the Beechcraft Bonanza A36TC which Wozniak was piloting (and not qualified to operate<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>) crashed soon after takeoff from the Sky Park Airport in Scotts Valley, California.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The airplane stalled while climbing, then bounced down the runway, broke through two fences, and crashed into an embankment. Wozniak and his three passengers—then-fiancée Candice Clark, her brother Jack Clark, and Jack's girlfriend, Janet Valleau—were injured. Wozniak sustained severe face and head injuries, including losing a tooth, and also suffered for the following five weeks from anterograde amnesia, the inability to create new memories. He had no memory of the crash, and did not remember his name while in the hospital or the things he did for a time after he was released.<ref name="byte198501">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> He would later state that Apple II computer games were what helped him regain his memory.<ref name="iWoz"/> The National Transportation Safety Board investigation report cited premature liftoff and pilot inexperience as probable causes of the crash.<ref name="Apple Confidential">Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Rp

Wozniak did not immediately return to Apple after recovering from the airplane crash, seeing it as a good reason to leave.<ref name="byte198501"/> Infinite Loop characterized this time: "Coming out of the semi-coma had been like flipping a reset switch in Woz's brain. It was as if in his thirty-year old body he had regained the mind he'd had at eighteen before all the computer madness had begun. And when that happened, Woz found he had little interest in engineering or design. Rather, in an odd sort of way, he wanted to start over fresh."<ref name="Infinite Loop">Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Rp

UC Berkeley and US Festivals

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File:Steve Wozniak, 1983.jpg
Wozniak in 1983

Later in 1981, after recovering from the plane crash, Wozniak re-enrolled at UC Berkeley to complete his Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences degree that he started there in 1971 (and which he would finish in 1986).<ref>Berkeley Engineering - Steve Wozniak: Inventor and Apple co-founder Template:Webarchive Retrieved August 2, 2022</ref> Because his name was well known at this point, he enrolled under the name Rocky Raccoon Clark, which is the name listed on his diploma,<ref name=wozorg/><ref name="wozemployee"/><ref name=theconversation/> although he did not officially receive his degree in electrical engineering and computer sciences until 1987.<ref name=Jobs&Woz/><ref name=wozorg/>

In May 1982 and 1983, Wozniak, with help from professional concert promoter Bill Graham, founded the company Unuson, an abbreviation of "unite us in song",<ref name="World According">Template:Cite magazine</ref> which sponsored two US Festivals, with "US" pronounced like the pronoun, not as initials. Initially intended to celebrate evolving technologies, the festivals ended up as a technology exposition and a rock festival as a combination of music, computers, television, and people. After losing several million dollars on the 1982 festival, Wozniak stated that unless the 1983 event turned a profit, he would end his involvement with rock festivals and get back to designing computers.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Later that year, Wozniak returned to Apple product development, desiring no more of a role than that of an engineer and a motivational factor for the Apple workforce.<ref name="iWoz" /><ref name="Infinite Loop"/>Template:Rp

Return to Apple product development

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File:Steve Wozniak and Andy Hertzfeld 1985.jpg
Wozniak and Macintosh system software designer Andy Hertzfeld at an Apple User Group Connection meeting in 1985

Starting in the mid-1980s, as the Macintosh experienced slow but steady growth, Apple's corporate leadership, including Steve Jobs, increasingly disrespected its flagship cash cow Apple II seriesTemplate:Emdashand Wozniak along with it. The Apple II divisionTemplate:Emdashother than WozniakTemplate:Emdashwas not invited to the Macintosh introduction event, and Wozniak was seen kicking the dirt in the parking lot.<ref name="Steve Thumbs">Template:Cite book</ref> Although Apple II products provided about 85% of Apple's sales in early 1985, the company's January 1985 annual meeting did not mention the Apple II division or its employees, a typical situation that frustrated Wozniak.<ref name="rice19850415">Template:Cite news</ref>

Final departure from Apple workforce

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Even with the success he had helped to create at Apple, Wozniak believed that the company was hindering him from being who he wanted to be, and that it was "the bane of his existence".<ref name="Flatow" /> He enjoyed engineering, not management, and said that he missed "the fun of the early days".<ref name="wozemployee"/> As other talented engineers joined the growing company, he no longer believed he was needed there.<ref name="iWoz" /> By early 1985, Wozniak left Apple again and sold most of his stock.<ref name="rice19850415"/> Media coverage attributed his departure to disagreements with Apple management, quoting his statement that Apple had "been going in the wrong direction for the last five years",<ref name="rice19850415"/> but Wozniak later objected to this portrayal and stated that he left primarily because he was excited to start CL 9 and recapture the fun of developing a new technology.<ref name="iWoz" />Template:Rp

The Apple II platform financially carried the company well into the Macintosh era of the late 1980s;<ref name="rice19850415"/> it was made semi-portable with the Apple IIc of 1984, and was extended, with some input from Wozniak, by the 16-bit Apple IIGS of 1986, and was discontinued altogether when the Apple IIe was discontinued on November 15, 1993 (although the Apple IIe card, which allowed compatible Macintosh computers to run Apple II software and use certain Apple II peripherals, was produced until May 1995).

Post-Apple

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File:Woz signs Modbook.jpg
Wozniak signs a Modbook at Macworld Expo in 2009

After his career at Apple, Wozniak founded CL 9 in 1985, which developed and brought the first programmable universal remote control to market in 1987, called the "CORE".<ref name="iWoz" /> Beyond engineering, Wozniak's second lifelong goal had always been to teach elementary school because of the important role teachers play in students' lives. Eventually, he did teach computer classes to children from the fifth through ninth grades, and teachers as well.<ref name=theconversation>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Flatow">Flatow, Ira. Present at the Future: From Evolution to Nanotechnology, Candid and Controversial Conversations on Science and Nature. USA: HarperCollins, 2007. 263-4. Print.</ref> Unuson continued to support this, funding additional teachers and equipment.<ref name="World According"/>

In 2001, Wozniak founded Wheels of Zeus (WOZ)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> to create wireless GPS technology to "help everyday people find everyday things much more easily". In 2002, he joined the board of directors of Ripcord Networks, Inc., joining Apple alumni Ellen Hancock, Gil Amelio, Mike Connor, and Wheels of Zeus co-founder Alex Fielding in a new telecommunications venture. Later the same year he joined the board of directors of Danger, Inc., the maker of the Hip Top.

In 2006, Wheels of Zeus was closed, and Wozniak founded Acquicor Technology, a holding company for acquiring technology companies and developing them, with Apple alumni Hancock and Amelio. From 2009 through 2014 he was chief scientist at Fusion-io.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2014 he became chief scientist at Primary Data, which was founded by some former Fusion-io executives.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Silicon Valley Comic Con (SVCC) is an annual pop culture and technology convention at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, California. The convention was co-founded by Wozniak and Rick White, with Trip Hunter as CEO.<ref>Template:Cite webTemplate:Cbignore</ref> Wozniak announced the annual event in 2015 along with Marvel legend Stan Lee.<ref>Template:Cite webTemplate:Cbignore</ref> In October 2017, Wozniak founded Woz U, an online educational technology service for independent students and employees.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> As of December 2018, Woz U was licensed as a school with the Arizona state board.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Though permanently leaving Apple as an active employee in 1985, Wozniak chose to never remove himself from the official employee list, and continues to represent the company at events or in interviews.<ref name="wozemployee"/> Today he receives a stipend from Apple for this role, estimated in 2006 to be Template:US$ per year.<ref name="iWoz" /><ref name="wozemployee">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He is also an Apple shareholder.<ref name="wozstock">Apple's Other Steve (Stock Research) Template:Webarchive March 2, 2000, The Motley Fool.</ref> He maintained a friendly acquaintance with Steve Jobs until Jobs's death in October 2011.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> However, in 2006, Wozniak stated that he and Jobs were not as close as they used to be.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In a 2013 interview, Wozniak said that the original Macintosh "failed" under Steve Jobs, and that it was not until Jobs left that it became a success. He called the Apple Lisa group the team that had kicked Jobs out, and that Jobs liked to call the Lisa group "idiots for making [the Lisa computer] too expensive". To compete with the Lisa, Jobs and his new team produced a cheaper computer, one that, according to Wozniak, was "weak", "lousy" and "still at a fairly high price". "He made it by cutting the RAM down, by forcing you to swap disks here and there", says Wozniak. He attributed the eventual success of the Macintosh to people like John Sculley "who worked to build a Macintosh market when the Apple II went away".<ref name=TheVerge>Template:Cite web</ref>

At the end of 2020, Wozniak announced the launch of a new company helmed by him, Efforce. Efforce is described as a marketplace for funding ecologically friendly projects. It used a WOZX cryptocurrency token for funding and blockchain to redistribute the profit to token holders and businesses engaged on the platform.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In September 2021, it was reported that Wozniak was also starting a company alongside co-founder Alex Fielding named Privateer Space to address the problem of space debris.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Privateer Space debuted the first version of its space traffic monitoring software on March 1, 2022.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2024, Wozniak sued YouTube in respect to a scam that was being circulated on the platform using his likeness. Later, he won after a San Jose appeals court ruled YouTube was liable for failing to combat it.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Inventions

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File:Steve Wozniak 2012.jpg
Wozniak at Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, Australia, 2012

Wozniak is listed as the sole inventor on the following Apple patents:

Philanthropy

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In 1990, Wozniak helped found the Electronic Frontier Foundation, providing some of the organization's initial funding<ref name="eff-barlow">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and serving on its founding Board of Directors.<ref name="eff-barlow" /> He is the founding sponsor of the Tech Museum, Silicon Valley Ballet and Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose.<ref name=wozorg/> Also since leaving Apple, Wozniak has provided all the money, and much onsite technical support, for the technology program in his local school district in Los Gatos.<ref name="iWoz" /> Un.U.Son. (Unite Us In Song), an organization Wozniak formed to organize the two US festivals, is now primarily tasked with supporting his educational and philanthropic projects.<ref name="iWoz" /><ref name="World According"/> In 1986, Wozniak lent his name to the Stephen G. Wozniak Achievement Awards (popularly known as "Wozzie Awards"), which he presented to six Bay Area high school and college students for their innovative use of computers in the fields of business, art, and music.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Wozniak is the subject of a student-made film production of his friend's (Joe Patane) nonprofit Dream Camp Foundation for high-level-need youth entitled Camp Woz: The Admirable Lunacy of Philanthropy.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Views on artificial superintelligence

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In March 2015, Wozniak stated that while he had originally dismissed Ray Kurzweil's opinion that machine intelligence would outpace human intelligence within several decades, Wozniak had changed his mind: Template:Cquote Wozniak stated that he had started to identify a contradictory sense of foreboding about artificial intelligence, while still supporting the advance of technology.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

By June 2015, Wozniak changed his mind again, stating that a superintelligence takeover would be good for humans: Template:Cquote

In 2016, Wozniak changed his mind again, stating that he no longer worried about the possibility of superintelligence emerging because he is skeptical that computers will be able to compete with human "intuition": "A computer could figure out a logical endpoint decision, but that's not the way intelligence works in humans". Wozniak added that if computers do become superintelligent, "they're going to be partners of humans over all other species just forever".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Wozniak signed a 2023 open letter from the Future of Life Institute calling for "all AI labs to immediately pause for at least 6 months the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In an interview to the BBC in May 2023 Wozniak said that AI may make scams more difficult to detect, noting that "AI is so intelligent it's open to the bad players, the ones that want to trick you about who they are".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Personal life

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File:Kathy and Woz (2400485190) (cropped2).jpg
Wozniak and friend Kathy Griffin in 2008

Wozniak lives in Los Gatos, California. He applied for Australian citizenship in 2012, and has stated that he would like to live in Melbourne, Australia in the future.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Wozniak has been referred to frequently by the nickname "Woz", or "The Woz"; he has also been called "The Wonderful Wizard of Woz" and "The Second Steve" (in regard to his early business partner and longtime friend, Steve Jobs).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> "WoZ" (short for "Wheels of Zeus") is the name of a company he founded in 2002; it closed in 2006.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Wozniak describes his impetus for joining the Freemasons in 1979 as being able to spend more time with his then-wife, Alice Robertson, who belonged to the Order of the Eastern Star, associated with the Masons. He was initiated in 1979 at Charity Lodge No. 362 in Campbell, California, now part of Mt. Moriah Lodge No. 292 in Los Gatos.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Today he is no longer involved: "I did become a Freemason and know what it's about but it doesn't really fit my tech/geek personality. Still, I can be polite to others from other walks of life. After our divorce was filed I never attended again but I did contribute enough for a lifetime membership."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Wozniak was married to slalom canoe gold-medalist Candice Clark from June 1981 to 1987. They have three children together, the youngest being born after their divorce was finalized.<ref name=macobserver>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=People>Template:Cite magazine</ref> After a high-profile relationship with actress Kathy Griffin, who described him on Tom Green's House Tonight in 2008 as "the biggest techno-nerd in the Universe", Wozniak married Janet Hill, his current spouse.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> On his religious views, Wozniak has called himself an "atheist or agnostic".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web.</ref>

He is a member of a Segway Polo team, the Silicon Valley Aftershocks,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and is considered a "super fan" of the NHL ice hockey team San Jose Sharks.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 1998, he co-authored with Larry Wilde The Official Computer Freaks Joke Book. In 2006, he co-authored with Gina Smith his autobiography, iWoz: From Computer Geek to Cult Icon: How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-Founded Apple, and Had Fun Doing It. The book made The New York Times Best Seller list.<ref name=wozorg/>

Wozniak has discussed his personal disdain for money and accumulating large amounts of wealth. He told Fortune magazine in 2017, "I didn't want to be near money, because it could corrupt your values ... I really didn't want to be in that super 'more than you could ever need' category." He also said that he only invests in things "close to his heart". When Apple first went public in 1980, Wozniak offered $10 million of his own stock to early Apple employees, something Jobs refused to do.<ref name=CNBC>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2017, Wozniak received a Polish citizenship and visited Poland to meet with government and technology industry representatives and to visit his father’s hometown.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

He has the condition prosopagnosia (face blindness).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Wozniak has expressed support for the right to repair movement. In July 2021, he made a Cameo video in response to right to repair activist Louis Rossmann, in which he described the issue as something that has "really affected me emotionally", and credited Apple's early breakthroughs to open technology of the 1970s.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In November 2023, Wozniak suffered a minor stroke while preparing to speak at a conference in Mexico City. He was hospitalized briefly before returning home.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="guard-9nov2023">Template:Cite news</ref> Wozniak became a Serbian citizen in December 2023. He said that he and his wife Janet, who is also getting a passport, will from now on "promote" Serbia while living in the U.S.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Honors and awards

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File:Steve Wozniak by Gage Skidmore 2.jpg
Wozniak speaking at a conference in Paradise Valley, Arizona in 2017

Because of his lifetime of achievements, multiple organizations have given Wozniak awards and recognition, including:

File:Paul Allen and Steve Wozniak at the Living Computer Museum.jpg
Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and Wozniak at the Living Computer Museum in 2017

Honorary degrees

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For his contributions to technology, Wozniak has been awarded a number of Honorary Doctoral degrees, which include the following:

In media

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Wozniak has been mentioned, represented, and interviewed numerous times in media from the founding of Apple to the present.

Documentaries

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Feature films

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File:Steve Wozniak and Joey Slotnick.jpg
Wozniak and Joey Slotnick (left), who portrayed him in the 1999 film Pirates of Silicon Valley

Television

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See also

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References

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