Apple Intelligence made a highly anticipated debut at WWDC 2024, amid a surge of generative AI announcements from Google and OpenAI. Despite concerns that Apple was late to the AI party, the company revealed a distinctive approach to artificial intelligence, focusing on seamless integration with existing products rather than standalone features.
What is Apple Intelligence?
Apple Intelligence, or “AI for the rest of us,” is designed to enhance existing Apple services through generative AI capabilities. Like ChatGPT and Google Gemini, it utilizes large language models (LLMs) for deep learning across text, images, video, and music. This technology operates behind the scenes, manifesting as new features in apps rather than as a separate entity.
The text-based features, powered by LLM, appear as Writing Tools in apps like Mail, Messages, Pages, and Notifications. These tools can summarize long texts, proofread, and compose messages using content and tone prompts. For image generation, users can create custom emojis (Genmojis) and use the standalone Image Playground app to generate visuals for Messages, Keynote, or social media.
Apple Intelligence also revitalizes Siri, integrating it more deeply into Apple’s operating systems. The updated Siri can now perform tasks across apps, offering a frictionless user experience. Onscreen awareness allows Siri to provide context-aware answers based on the current content.
Who Gets Apple Intelligence and When?
While Apple Intelligence was showcased at WWDC, the public beta will be available in the fall, coinciding with the release of iOS/iPadOS 18 and Mac Sequoia. The feature will be free for users with compatible 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)
Notably, only the Pro versions of the iPhone 15 will support Apple Intelligence due to hardware limitations in the standard model. The entire iPhone 16 lineup is expected to be compatible upon its release.
Private Cloud Compute
Apple employs a bespoke approach to AI training, using in-house data sets for specific tasks like email composition. This method reduces resource demands, allowing many tasks to be performed on-device. More complex queries will use Apple’s new Private Cloud Compute, which maintains user privacy with remote servers running on Apple Silicon.
Apple Intelligence and Third-Party Apps
Despite speculation about a partnership with OpenAI, Apple Intelligence will primarily serve Apple’s ecosystem, with OpenAI providing supplementary services. Apple plans to integrate other generative AI platforms, with Google Gemini likely next in line.
In summary, Apple Intelligence aims to bring practical AI enhancements to Apple’s existing products, prioritizing seamless integration and user privacy. As the public beta approaches, Apple users can look forward to a new era of intelligent, intuitive features across their devices.