Apple AI is finally here and it's called Apple Intelligence. The new AI brains built into Apple's upcoming software will help power iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia. Announced at WWDC 2024, the new AI improvements to software will make the best iPhones like the iPhone 15 Pro even better.
As expected, Apple touts the privacy benefits of its AI infrastructure, but in terms of what it can do it'll "understand and create language and images" as part of Personal Generative Models attuned to yourself.
This can be as simple as your iPhone prioritizing notifications, or system-wide text proofreading or summarization.
Apple Intelligence: The headlines
Apple's AI technology will be accessible across first-party apps like Pages, Keynote, Notes and more, and third parties will be able to use it, too.
Apple Intelligence can create original images on a context-specific level. You'll be able to wish a contact a happy birthday and have the generative AI create a sketched, illustrated, or animated image of them with a cake.
You can also make more complex requests of your phone, like asking it to show photos of multiple people with the new Photos app.
Apple says the A17 Pro and M-series chips offer the "computational foundation" to power Apple Intelligence on-device, adapting to your current context.
A Semantic Index identifies the data required for contextual requirements, but Apple says this data isn't stored.
Private Cloud Compute allows Apple Intelligence to extend privacy into the Cloud for more complex tasks. Apple Intelligence will work out if your request can be processed on device, and if not, it'll lean on Apple Silicon-powered servers for cloud computing.
How it affects apps and Siri
As expected, this leads to a huge change in Siri - including a fresh new icon. Siri will be "more natural. contextually relevant, and personal". Siri will cause your screen to glow when it's in use, so you won't get the pop-up at the bottom of your screen anymore.
Users can even move between text and voice, and Siri will gain access to product knowledge for a quick Apple "how-to". Apple promises it'll get better with time, too, adding things like on-screen awareness for processing data displayed on your screen.
You'll also be able to ask Siri to customize your photos, or move items to other applications thanks to a new App Intents API that lets developers integrate Apple Intelligence into their own applications.
Apple gave an example of asking when a contact's flight is landing to provide a flight summary taken from booking information, before surfacing restaurant reservations in a window without needing to open the app.
Apple Intelligence will also come to iPad and Mac, letting you rewrite emails with a change in tone, or proofread your grammar within the app.
Apple Intelligence will also help speed up the process of triaging your Mail inbox, with AI-powered summaries on your email list and prioritization of time-sensitive mail.
You can use generative AI to create emojis (Apple calls them Genmojis) that are tailored to your request, with a new Image Playground feature in apps like Messages. These are created on-device, too, and can pull in data from Photos.
The Notes app is adding an Image Wand tool that lets you convert a rough sketch based on your image and words around it.
Photos will add a Clean Up option to remove background photobombers (think Google's Magic Eraser feature), while you can also search your library with natural language support.
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Make the most of Apple Intelligence with one of the best iPhones:
We're covering the WWDC 2024 event as it happens. Follow WWDC 2024 LIVE here. Or check out our roundups for all the latest on the newly announced iOS 18, iPadOS 18, macOS 15, watchOS 11, visionOS 2, and Apple Intelligence.
