Everything you need to know about Apple Intelligence

Speculation surrounding Apple’s entry into the generative AI space was put to rest at Apple’s WWDC 2024 in June, where Apple Intelligence took center stage. Despite concerns that Apple had missed the boat in the latest tech trend, the company revealed that a team had been working on a characteristically Apple approach to artificial intelligence.

Far from being a flashy, standalone feature, Apple Intelligence is a pragmatic integration of AI into existing products. While the branding exercise is undeniable, the large language model (LLM) driven technology will operate behind the scenes, presenting itself to consumers as new features within familiar apps.

The recent iPhone 16 event on September 9 shed more light on Apple’s AI plans, showcasing features like translation on the Apple Watch Series 10, visual search on iPhones, and enhanced Siri capabilities. Notably, Apple announced that Intelligence will launch in beta this fall in the US (in English), with a broader international rollout and additional languages planned for later this year and into 2025.

Apple Intelligence Overview

Cupertino marketing executives have positioned Apple Intelligence as “AI for the rest of us,” emphasizing its focus on enhancing existing features through generative AI capabilities. Like its counterparts, ChatGPT and Google Gemini, Apple Intelligence was trained on large information models using deep learning to establish connections across various media formats.

One of the key text-based features, Writing Tools, leverages LLM to provide a range of functionalities across Apple apps like Mail, Messages, Pages, and Notifications. This includes summarizing lengthy texts, proofreading, and even generating messages based on content and tone prompts.

In addition to text, Apple Intelligence also incorporates image generation capabilities. While not as seamless as the text features, users can utilize Apple Intelligence to create custom emojis (Genmojis) in a signature Apple style. Furthermore, the standalone Image Playground app enables users to generate visual content using prompts, which can then be shared via Messages, Keynote, or social media platforms.

The introduction of Apple Intelligence also brought about a much-needed revamp of Siri, Apple’s smart assistant. After being ahead of the curve, Siri had largely been overlooked in recent years. Now, with deeper integration into Apple’s operating systems, Siri is poised for a significant comeback. This echoes the trend of AI-powered tools, like WorkBot, that aim to enhance productivity and efficiency by providing intuitive and integrated solutions.

One of the most noticeable changes is the replacement of the traditional icon with a glowing light around the edge of the iPhone screen, indicating when Siri is active. More significantly, Siri now seamlessly interacts across apps, enabling users to perform tasks like editing a photo and inserting it directly into a text message without friction.

Additionally, Siri’s onscreen awareness allows it to consider the context of the content you’re currently interacting with, providing more relevant and accurate responses. This enhanced capability marks a significant step forward for Siri, transforming it into a more intuitive and integrated assistant.

Who gains access to Apple Intelligence, and when?

While Apple Intelligence has been announced, its effectiveness remains to be seen. Although the latest Apple operating systems entered public beta in July, Apple Intelligence is still a work in progress. Apple’s June announcement was likely intended to alleviate concerns about its generative AI strategy and provide a head start for developers.

The demos showcased at WWDC were promising, but we’ll have to wait until fall to experience Apple Intelligence firsthand. The initial beta release is scheduled for October in the US, with English as the only supported language. Localized English support will follow in December for Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, and the UK, while support for Chinese, French, Japanese, and Spanish is planned for 2025.

Notably, Apple Intelligence will be available for free on select devices, including:

• iPhone 15 Pro Max (A17 Pro)
• iPhone 15 Pro (A17 Pro)
• iPad Pro (M1 and later)
• iPad Air (M1 and later)
• MacBook Air (M1 and later)
• MacBook Pro (M1 and later)
• iMac (M1 and later)
• Mac Mini (M1 and later)
• Mac Studio (M1 Max and later)
• Mac Pro (M2 Ultra)

Interestingly, only the Pro versions of the iPhone 15 are compatible, due to chipset limitations in the standard model. However, it’s likely that the entire iPhone 16 lineup will support Apple Intelligence upon its release.

Private Cloud Compute

Apple has adopted a tailored approach to training its AI models, focusing on specific tasks like email composition rather than relying on a broad, general-purpose model like GPT and Gemini. By compiling datasets in-house for particular tasks, Apple has made these processes less resource-intensive, enabling them to be performed directly on-device.

However, more complex queries will leverage Apple’s new Private Cloud Compute service, which utilizes remote servers powered by Apple Silicon. This approach ensures the same level of privacy as Apple’s consumer devices. The transition between local and cloud processing will be seamless, with the exception of offline scenarios, where remote queries will return an error message. This design choice allows Apple to balance performance and privacy while maintaining a streamlined user experience.

Apple Intelligence and Third-party Apps

Prior to WWDC, there was significant speculation about Apple’s potential partnership with OpenAI. However, the actual announcement revealed a more complex collaboration. Rather than powering Apple Intelligence, the partnership focuses on offering an alternative platform for tasks that Apple’s system isn’t optimized for. This acknowledges the limitations of Apple’s small-model approach.

Both Apple Intelligence and ChatGPT will be available for free, but paid ChatGPT accounts will unlock premium features that are not accessible to free users. This is likely to drive further growth for the popular generative AI platform.

Apple has also hinted at plans to partner with additional generative AI services, with Google Gemini being a likely next candidate. This strategy suggests Apple is committed to providing users with a range of AI options rather than relying solely on its in-house capabilities.