Apple’s new AI finally revealed

Apple always kicks off its annual Worldwide Developer’s Conference with a keynote speech, announcing the key updates. And, as expected, they were mainly focused on the rollout of new AI-powered features.

What has Apple announced, so far

Apple Intelligence

Apple Intelligence, Apple’s intelligence system “that puts powerful generative models right at the core of your iPhone, iPad, and Mac”, will enable new capabilities across Apple’s apps, and comes with a big emphasis on security. It will use contextual data to answer Apple users’ questions, and will automatically defer to OpenAI’s ChatGPT if they require broader answers–with neither Apple nor OpenAI receiving or storing their user data.

Apple has  established that it will be “grounded in your personal context, like your routine, your relationships, your communications and more”, and will be “built with privacy from the ground up.”

They also confirmed that Apple Intelligence will be available (for free) on the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max, along with iPads and Macs with M1 or newer chips.

Partnerships

As expected, Apple confirmed its partnership with OpenAI, bringing ChatGPT capabilities to Siri (more on this next), and alluded to future partnerships with other AI Large Language Models (LLMs), such as Google’s Gemini.

Siri updates

Siri will be upgraded with AI, making it understand context better, and appear more natural and personal. When activated it will trigger a pulsating light around the edge of devices, and will give users more control over their apps, with users able to ask it to find information inside emails or surface specific photos. It will automatically connect to ChatGPT-4o (for free, without users needing an account)–asking users for permission to connect first–to answer broader queries, and will be able to keep track of follow-up requests and questions.

iOS 18

These features will be available on its new operating system–iOS 18–and will also include features that summarize content, generate responses, create custom emojis, and generate AI images.

What do Apple’s new AI features symbolize?

Contrary to expectations, the new AI releases aren’t Apple’s usual ‘flashy’ updates. Its goal with these new features is to make "AI for the rest of us." They’re positioning themselves as the alternative to complicated, error-prone AI products that don’t care about users' data, privacy, or security: It’s safe, easy, and effective AI for the masses.

While this will undoubtedly appeal to the majority of non-technical people, it seems to have unnerved Wall Street, as share prices fell following the keynote announcement.