Less than a year ago, Apple made headlines for a lack of AI announcements at its annual WWDC event. Ten months later, the company has announced that hardware executive John Ternus will succeed longtime CEO Tim Cook as chief executive — and the official release doesn’t mention AI once. Ternus, currently Apple’s SVP of hardware engineering, will take over as CEO on September 1st, after Cook’s decade and a half in the role. Ternus is a 25-year veteran of the company and the first Apple CEO in about 30 years to come from the hardware sector. According to Apple, he’s led hardware engineering work for every model of iPad, as well as the most recent iPhone family and AirPods. Yesterday’s announcement highlighted Ternus’s work adding better noise cancellation and hearing health upgrades for AirPods, overseeing the MacBook Neo’s debut, and upping Apple products’ durability and repairability. Not once did the company mention his plans or relevant experience for advancing AI.…