In a move that almost screams about time, Apple has officially thrown its hat into the generative AI ring, unveiling a suite of new features under the tidy banner of “Apple Intelligence” at its annual World Wide Developers Conference. Tim Cook, never one to understate the gravity of anything Apple does, called the announcement “the next big step for Apple” which is, of course, the polite Cupertino way of saying “okay fine you got us, we heard the noise about AI and finally did something.”
The biggest eyebrow-raiser of the day? Siri, once largely known for answering the wrong question with unwavering confidence, is finally getting a long overdue glow-up. Courtesy of a new alliance with OpenAI, Siri will be integrating ChatGPT’s capabilities which means that your iPhone will soon be capable of writing dinner party poems, fixing your emails and possibly understanding what you mean when you mumble “set a reminder for that thing later.”
Siri will soon understand context and handle tasks across apps such as summarizing your dog’s vet notes in an email to your neighbor, proofreading your catastrophic text messages before they go out and helping you find that picture of your niece wearing a duck costume at Easter 2019 even if you only remember the “vibes.”
This ChatGPT integration will not require you to log in to anything, and Apple assures users that the AI understands the concept of privacy better than some of your apps that rhyme with “Macebook.” Users will be asked before sending any data off-device, because it turns out Apple knows people are sort of attached to their privacy — almost as much as they are to their group chat memes.
But wait there’s more. Apple also announced its iOS 18, which among other things turns the iPhone’s home screen into more of a suggestion than a mandate. For the first time you will be able to move app icons wherever you please, which may lead to a brief existential crisis as users realize they’ve been living under tyranny in a grid system.
iOS 18 will also let you lock specific apps — yes finally — so your curious coworker can no longer stumble across your notes folder titles like “Dream Pizza Combos” or “Angry Drafts to Never Send.”
In a decision that is either extremely generous or extremely clever depending on your level of cynicism, Apple Intelligence will only be available on the iPhone 15 Pro and up, and newer iPads and Macs with M1 chips or better. Which means that if your device predates the pandemic, it’s mostly just invited to watch the fun from the sidelines.
Siri may be getting smarter, but your ability to skip the upgrade cycle just took a major hit.