While delivering Stanford University’s commencement speech on Sunday, Apple (AAPL) CEO Tim Cook criticized the tech industry’s privacy issues and suggested that it has failed to take responsibility for the “chaos” it has sowed.

Cook contended that while Silicon Valley is known for creating some of the most important inventions in modern history, the industry is becoming known for a loss of privacy, the spread of hate speech, and more.

"Too many seem to think good intentions excuse away harmful outcomes," the CEO said. "But whether you like it or not, what you build and what you create define who you are.

"If feels a bit crazy that anyone should have to say this. But if you've built a chaos factory, you can't dodge responsibility for the chaos. Taking responsibility means having the courage to see things through."

Big dreams and false miracles

During his speech, Cook nailed the tech industry for trying to preserve its image as a bastion for free ideas and thought even as it fails to reel in the negative effects it can have on society.

"Here's a plain fact — Silicon Valley is responsible for some of the most revolutionary inventions in modern history ... But lately, it seems, this industry is becoming known for a less noble innovation. The belief that you can claim credit without accepting responsibility," Cook said.

Without calling out specific companies by name, the Apple CEO pushed back against social media giants that don't do enough to stop hate speech on their platforms. He even attacked the defunct blood-testing company Theranos.

"We see it every day now, with every data breach, every privacy violation, every blind eye turned to hate speech. Fake news poisoning our national conversation. False miracles in exchange for a single drop of your blood," Cook said.

The Apple chief argued that the loss of privacy and the rise of surveillance technologies like facial recognition software — which has drawn the ire of groups including the American Civil Liberties Union — will have a chilling effect on free thought.

According to Cook, if society begins to accept data leaks and hacks as part of our daily lives, we will lose the freedom to be human.

"In a world without digital privacy, even if you've done nothing wrong other than think differently, you begin to censor yourself," Cook said. "Not entirely at first, just a little. Bit by bit. To risk less, to hope less, to imagine less, to dare less, to create less, to try less, to talk less, to think less."

In the end, Cook said, the result will be a less imaginative world that runs contrary to the kind of open-mindedness and free thinking that led to the establishment of the tech industry.