Apple Intelligence is Apple’s take on AI and looks to fundamentally change the way we interact with technology, combining advanced machine learning and AI capabilities with everyday devices.
Apple’s AI ecosystem promises more conversational prose from Siri, automated proofreading and text summarization in apps, and lightning-fast image generation. It is designed to improve user experiences and streamline operations across the entire product range. Here’s everything you need to know about Apple’s transformative new AI.
Apple Intelligence release date and compatibility
Apple Intelligence is scheduled for a formal release this fall and will be included in the operating system’s three major updates: iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia.
The three are currently in developer beta, with public betas and official releases coming later this year.
The company has indicated that the AI features will, at least initially, only be available on the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max, as well as iPads and Macs with M1 or newer chips. Additionally, at launch the features will only be available if the user language is set to English.
Why the closure? Well, Apple has insisted that the processes are too intensive for older hardware, as they use the more advanced neural engines, GPUs and CPUs of these newer chips.
New AI features
Regardless of which device you use Apple Intelligence with, the AI will primarily focus on three functions: helping with writing, creating and editing images, and improving Siri’s cognitive capabilities.
Writing tools
The new Writing Tools feature will be integrated into iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia at launch. It can proofread the user’s writing and rewriting sections as needed, and summarize text across Apple’s ecosystem of applications, including Mail, Notes, and Pages. Third-party developers can use authoring tools in their own apps via API calls.
For example, in the Mail app, Apple Intelligence gives the user short summaries of the contents of their inbox, instead of showing them the first few lines of the email itself. Smart Reply suggests replies based on the content of the message and ensures that the response answers all questions asked in the original email. The app even moves more timely and relevant correspondence via Priority Messages to the top of the inbox.
The Notes app will also see significant improvements. With Apple Intelligence, Notes will offer new audio transcription and summarization features, as well as an integrated calculator, called Math Notes, that solves equations typed in the body of the note.
Image Playground
Image creation and editing functions will be largely handled by the new Image Playground app, in which users can display generated images in seconds in one of three artistic styles: animation, illustration, and sketch. Image Playground will exist as a standalone app, with many of its features and functions integrated with other Apple apps such as Messages.
Apple Intelligence is also coming to your camera roll. The Memories feature in the Photos app was already able to automatically identify the most important people, places, and pets in a user’s life, then curate that series of images into a cohesive collection set to music. Apple Intelligence makes Reminders even better.
The AI selects the photos and videos that best match the user’s input prompt (e.g. “road trip with best friends to LA 2024”). it then generates a storyline – including chapters based on themes the AI finds in the selected images – and stitches it all together into a short film. Photos users will also get access to Clean Up, a tool similar to Google’s Magic Eraser, and improved search features once Apple Intelligence approves the public beta.
Siri
Perhaps the biggest beneficiary of Apple Intelligence’s new capabilities will be Siri. Apple’s long-suffering digital assistant will be more deeply integrated into the operating system, with more conversational speech and improved natural language processing.
Additionally, Siri’s memory will be more persistent, allowing the agent to remember details from previous conversations while allowing the user to switch seamlessly between spoken and written prompts.
Apple Intelligence Privacy
To prevent the costly and embarrassing data breaches that some of its competitors have suffered in recent months, Apple has put privacy at the heart of the Apple Intelligence experience, even going so far as to develop its own private and secure AI. compute cloud, called Private Cloud Compute (PCC), to handle complex user queries.
Most of Apple Intelligence’s routine operations will be handled on-device, using the company’s latest generations of A17 and M family processors, Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, said at WWDC 2024. It knows about your personal data, without collecting your personal data,” he added.
“When you make a request, Apple Intelligence analyzes whether it can be processed on the device,” Federighi continues. “If it needs more computing power, it can use Private Cloud Compute and send only the data relevant to your task to be processed on Apple’s silicon servers.” This should dramatically reduce the chance of private user data being hacked, intercepted, spied on, and otherwise snooped on as it travels between the device and PCC.
“Your data is never stored or made accessible to Apple,” he explained. “It is used solely to fulfill your request and, like your iPhone, independent experts can inspect the code running on these servers to verify this privacy commitment.”
Apple Intelligence’s ChatGPT partnership
Apple Intelligence won’t be the only advanced generative AI moving into your Apple devices this fall. During WWDC, Apple and OpenAI executives announced that the two companies are launching a partnership that will integrate ChatGPT functionality (powered by GPT-4o) – including image and text generation – into Siri and Writing Tools. Like Apple Intelligence, ChatGPT will intervene if Siri’s built-in capabilities are not sufficient for the user’s query, except ChatGPT will instead send the request to OpenAI’s public computing cloud instead of the PCC.
Users do not have to navigate away from the Siri screen when using ChatGPT capabilities. Siri provides the answer regardless of where the question was answered. To ensure at least a semblance of privacy protection, the device will ask the user for permission before sending the request, along with any documents or images the user has attached.
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