On Monday, at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference held in Cupertino, Apple finally pulled back the curtain on long-rumored artificial intelligence features for its devices, and in true Apple fashion, it did so with dramatic flair, a glossy keynote, and Tim Cook announcing things as if none of us had ever heard of AI before.
The technology juggernaut introduced a collection of new features under the somewhat self-explanatory name “Apple Intelligence,” a rebrand the company appears to hope will make its AI seem smarter, friendlier, and perhaps more interested in your calendar than in your personal data. The new suite uses AI to do things like rewrite your emails, summarize notifications, and generate images in Messages, presumably so you can stop sending memes from five years ago.
The updates are coming to iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia, names which sound suspiciously like a series of luxury yachts. Apple also announced a revamped Siri, now equipped to handle more complex tasks like answering questions based on what’s on your screen or scheduling a meeting without booking it during your dentist appointment. It is not clear what Siri was previously doing, but it now appears to be taking its job more seriously.
In a move that screams both ambition and corporate hedging, Apple is partnering with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT into its system-wide tools. Users will be able to ask Siri to tap ChatGPT for help with creative writing, such as generating bedtime stories. Whether children will enjoy bedtime tales authored by the same AI that hallucinates citations remains to be seen, but at least now they can fall asleep learning about large language models.
“We’re excited to introduce a new chapter in Apple innovation. Apple Intelligence will transform what users can do with our products,” said Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, apparently with a straight face and no hint of irony regarding the years of AI features offered by other companies.
Security and privacy, Apple insists, remain front and center. The company claims that most processing occurs directly on the device, with only complex tasks being offloaded to “Private Cloud Compute” servers, Apple’s name for the AI version of a trusted but mysterious butler who keeps secrets and probably uses two-factor authentication.
The features are slated to roll out in beta this fall, or as Apple likely calls it, the season of polite technophiles signing up for bugs disguised as progress. Apple Intelligence will be available on devices with at least an A17 Pro chip or M-series chip, which is to say, not your perfectly functional iPhone 12, thank you very much.
So while Apple may be late to the AI party, it has at least arrived with a well-tailored suit, a dramatically choreographed entrance, and a determined look that says it intends to rewrite your grocery list with machine learning flair.
AI might be the future, but in Cupertino, it is arriving fashionably late and wearing all the right accessories.