Apple Intelligence: AI For All

Apple have had an interest in AI applications for some time, but it seems that they are in no hurry to roll anything out. This is typical of the Cupertino company, which has a rich history of taking its time to get things going. Apple may have hit the ground with the touchscreen smartphone in 2007, though even that wasn’t the first touchscreen phone.  

Since then, Apple have followed, rather than led, but when they do go to market, it is usually with a well-considered, fully-tested system that people are assured will do what it is supposed to. This then, appears to be the situation with their AI efforts.

AI at WWDC24

This year Apples’ WWDC, which started on the 10th June, and while it covered many announcements, one of the major technological drops was the statement regarding the development of Apple Intelligence as part of the keynote.

While the system’s announcement was significant, it was also quite plain that Apple were going to continue to treat the development of AI as an ongoing project, and there would be nothing to offer the public until the company were satisfied that it was fully developed.

Apple Intelligence is a platform for artificial intelligence that uses a combination of processing that occurs on the device itself and processing that occurs on a server. Additionally, it will be a component of Apple’s iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia operating systems, all of which were introduced concurrently with the artificial intelligence. Additionally, Apple Intelligence is slated to enter a developer beta in the United States in late 2024, and it is anticipated that it will be completely launched in 2025. Apple Intelligence will be free for all consumers who have devices that are compatible with it.

With the help of Apple silicon – a set of custom processors developed by the company – Apple Intelligence is able to comprehend and generate visual and verbal content, operate across applications, and rely on users’ individual context to streamline and quicken routine chores. In order to provide customers with individualised intelligence without collecting their data, on-device processing is a fundamental component of Apple Intelligence. With the flexibility to switch between on-device processing and bigger, server-based models that operate on specialised Apple silicon servers, Private Cloud Compute establishes a new bar for privacy in AI.

What is Apple Intelligence Expected to Do?

During the keynote, it was made abundantly clear that Apple aims to keep its artificial intelligence products at a distance for the foreseeable future on behalf of its consumers, and that they would only release it when they are confident in its capabilities.

In order to provide you with answers to your inquiries, Apple Intelligence will make use of each and every piece of contextual information that is included within the protected environment of your Apple products. According to this theory, the artificial intelligence will take into account each input device, and the more Apple items you purchase, the more intelligent your AI will become. In the event that you want information that is more general, Apple Intelligence will conduct a query on ChatGPT on your behalf. Neither Apple nor OpenAI will get any information on the user who is answering the inquiry.

This doesn’t mean that ChatGPT is a fundamental part of the Apple Intelligence system, and Apple are keen to demonstrate that they are focused on system security rather than just cheap connectivity.  While the exact features of the system are not yet fully rolled out, we know that Apple Intelligence will have some in-depth functionality, including:

• Image generation. The Image Playground app makes advantage of Apple’s AI to create graphics directly on the smartphone. Using text and descriptions, it may make pictures using AI in a manner similar to OpenAI’s DALL-E, with the added flexibility of being able to choose from a variety of styles, including Animation and Sketch. You don’t even need to launch the Image Playground app on your iPad to utilise Notes’ Image Wand tool in the Apple Pencil palette to access Image Playground. Images may be created from simple drawings.
• Intelligent writing. The AI-driven Rewrite and Proofread subsystems are expected to be part of the main package. Like Grammarly’s AI writing tools, they will assist users improve their writing by making written content either friendlier, shorter, or more professional. The user can also use it to make lists, tables, and summaries of articles or other pieces of text. 
• Genmoji. Genmoji users may now make their own unique pictures only by inputting descriptions into the text-to-image algorithms developed by Apple Intelligence. Genmoji allows users to select individuals in photographs and generate emojis that look like them. Genmoji, like emoji, may be embedded into text messages and shared through Messages and third-party applications that support them as stickers or Tapback replies.

In addition, Apple’s virtual assistant, Siri, will be updated with new features that are made possible by Apple Intelligence and have been previously unavailable. The next version will have a user interface that has been updated, natural language processing that will be enhanced, and the ability to interact with text by double pressing the home bar without having to enable the function in the Accessibility menu. Overall, it is thought that this version is likely to be an improvement on the current Siri. In addition, according to Apple Intelligence, Siri will have the capability to make use of personal context derived from actions on the iPhone in order to make conversations seem more natural and fluid.

With seemingly everyone diving into AI, it’s refreshing that Apple are choosing to hold back and perfect what they are keen to introduce rather than just dumping it on the market. Apple was one of the first companies to enter the digital assistant business when they introduced Siri in 2011. However, AI has experienced a decline in performance since that time — and even the technologies that have outperformed Siri, such as Amazon’s Alexa, appear to have reached a point of stability without further apparent growth. The emergence of AI presents Apple with another opportunity to create a versatile and capable assistant that can do various tasks on behalf of the user. 

Now that Apple have thrown their hat into the ring once more, we are excited to see how it all turns out, but we guess that we aren’t going to hold our breath while waiting for it.