At the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2024, Apple announced a groundbreaking addition to its ecosystem: “Apple Intelligence.” This suite of AI-powered features marks a significant shift for the tech giant, which had previously been hesitant to embrace the term “artificial intelligence.” The new capabilities span across iPhone, Mac, and other Apple devices, positioning the company as a serious contender in the competitive AI landscape dominated by tech giants like Google and Microsoft.
AI Features that Work for You
“Apple Intelligence” will revolutionize user experience by automating tasks and enhancing app functionalities. It manages notifications, drafts emails, and summarizes text across applications, all aimed at streamlining daily tasks. One of the standout features allows users to reference and integrate actions across apps. For instance, users can ask Siri to play a podcast shared by a friend without manually switching between apps.
Privacy-First AI Processing
Apple emphasizes that artificial intelligence features will be processed on the device and personal data will be kept safe. To take advantage of these advanced features, users will need devices equipped with A17 Pro or M series chips. Additionally, Apple offers a “semantic index” that can intelligently pull and display relevant personal details from different apps when needed.
Apple is implementing a “Private Cloud” for AI functions that require cloud processing. This system protects user privacy by ensuring that it never stores data used in AI processing on Apple servers, making it inaccessible to the company. Apple guarantees that independent experts will verify these privacy measures.
Siri’s AI Upgrade
Siri, Apple’s virtual assistant, is set to become smarter and more versatile with the introduction of AI enhancements. Users will experience a more natural conversational flow with Siri, which now supports both voice and text commands. The updated Siri can perform complex tasks within apps, such as editing photos with a command like “make this photo pop” or automatically inserting a driver’s license number from a photo into a web form.
The assistant’s on-screen awareness feature allows users to command Siri to interact with visible content directly, making it easier to perform tasks like sharing photos or pulling up specific details from images.
Enhanced Writing and Text Features
Apple is also expanding its AI capabilities into writing and text management across its ecosystem. Users can now rely on Siri to draft emails, suggest changes, and adjust the tone of messages. This functionality is integrated system-wide, enabling AI-assisted writing in any text field.
Introducing “Genmoji” and Image Playground
In a playful addition to its suite, Apple introduces “Genmoji,” a feature that generates custom emoji-like reactions on demand. This ensures that users can always find the perfect emoji to express themselves.
The new “Image Playground” feature, coming with iOS 18, enables users to generate and manipulate images with AI. This feature is accessible within multiple apps and also as a standalone app, with an API available for developers to integrate into their applications.
Additionally, the Photos app is receiving significant upgrades. Enhanced search capabilities will allow users to find images based on complex criteria, like searching for photos of someone doing cartwheels. Apple is also introducing features akin to Google’s Magic Eraser, such as the ability to remove unwanted elements from photos seamlessly.
ChatGPT Integration in Apple Intelligence
In a notable move, Apple confirmed its collaboration with OpenAI by bringing ChatGPT 4.0 to iOS, macOS, and iPadOS. When Siri encounters tasks beyond her current capabilities, it will be able to use ChatGPT to solve the problem, though it will always request user permission before doing so. Apple indicates that while it is starting with ChatGPT, it plans to support a variety of AI models in the future.
