Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak Confirms ‘Minor Stroke’

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has confirmed he is back at home, after a health scare on Wednesday, whilst he was abroad.

On Wednesday 73 year old Wozniak, known in tech circles simply as “Woz”, was rushed to hospital in Mexico City where he was due to give a closing speech at the World Business Forum (WBF) in the afternoon.

There were conflicting reports at the time, with some reports stating that Wozniak had finished his speech at the business conference, but then told his wife he was “feeling strange”. She reportedly insisted he go to the hospital, and TMZ reported that Wozniak may have suffered vertigo.

Health scare

But local media reports had stated Woz fell down and may have suffered a stroke.

CNN had reported that Wozniak was taken to the hospital at 3pm local time after fainting minutes before his participation at the event.

Now Steve Wozniak said he suffered a minor stroke while attending a business conference in Mexico City.

Wozniak told ABC News that he felt dizzy in the morning while working on his computer, then had some vertigo and couldn’t walk.

He then went to the hospital, where they took an MRI showing he had a “minor but real stroke,” he reportedly said via text message to ABC News.

Wozniak also told the New York Times that he was released from the hospital Thursday, and then flew back to California and was waiting for dinner at home in Los Gatos.

“I’m back home and feeling good,” Wozniak reportedly said.

The worst part of the experience, he told the New York Times, was that the hospital required him to stay on a gurney for 24 hours and wouldn’t let him roll onto his side.

The health scare, he added, means that Woz will have to cancel a number of trips for speaking engagements in Dubai; Medellín, Colombia; and Baku, Azerbaijan.

“That’s life for me in the busy times,” Wozniak said of the travel.

AI critic

Wozniak has continued to be active in the tech space, but in recent years has been vocal about the dangers of artificial intelligence (AI).

In 2015 for example Wozniak predicted that, in the future, the world would be controlled by artificial intelligence (AI) and that robots will treat humans as their pets.

In March 2023 he signed a letter along with Elon Musk and others calling for a pause in the development and training of the most powerful AIs to allow society to catch up.

In May this year Woz had warned AI could make it more difficult to spot scams and misinformation.