As first reported by The New York Times and confirmed by The Hollywood Reporter, Jon Stewart's Apple TV+ series "The Problem with Jon Stewart" was canceled weeks before filming was scheduled to begin on its third season According to one NYT source, "Mr. Stewart told members of his staff Thursday that potential show themes related to China and artificial intelligence were causing concern among Apple executives. . told him that he needed to be "aligned" with them regarding the theme of the program, which led to his decision to leave the company.

Apple is reportedly working on developing its own AI large-scale language model and has banned employees from using other AI tools such as ChatGPT; AI tools are also used in the iPhone's photography and search software. As for China, much of Apple's production is done there, and the company has invested heavily in Chinese infrastructure. Apparently, Apple does not want to see the Chinese government criticized, at least not on its own streaming service.

Jon Stewart made his name as the host of The Daily Show from 1999 to 2015, turning the comedy chat show into a source of notable political commentary. One might expect that when Apple hired Stewart, they would have known what kind of critique to expect, but apparently they were wrong. Perhaps they just figured that Stewart would have cooled off over the years.

As a company, Apple is notorious for tightly controlling its image, even going so far as to restrict filmmakers from letting villains use iPhones, as Rian Johnson revealed to Vanity Fair.