For the past year or two, the world has seen a slew of fantastic artificial intelligence (AI) products emerge, leaving everyone wondering when Apple will join the party. Now we finally have an answer.
On a recent earnings call (via The Verge), Apple CEO Tim Cook disclosed that AI features will be available on the company’s devices as early as “later this year.” Cook went on to say, “I think there’s a huge opportunity for Apple with generative AI.” While the Apple CEO did not divulge any information, the little he did mention has already sparked discussion.
It’s hardly surprising that Apple is working on generative AI tools; Cook confirmed as much in August 2023, when he stated that the company has been creating its own generative AI “for years.” But the most recent admission is the first time we’ve heard anyone set a launch date, even if it’s only a preliminary estimate.
Given that this is a software update (and a significant one at that), it appears that Apple has the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in mind. This June event will be used by the firm to announce new operating systems and software upgrades (such as iOS 18). And with its audience mostly comprised of developers, it makes sense for Apple to tease something like generative AI that could give devs a new tool in their iOS arsenal.
Furthermore, industry analyst Jeff Pu has already claimed that iOS 18 will be one of Apple’s biggest software releases ever due to the addition of generative AI, and Cook’s words appear to back up Pu’s claim. That means there could be a lot to look forward to during WWDC, including some huge new features for your iPhone.
What is on its way here?
The most likely improvement Cook is alluding to is a new version of Apple’s Siri voice assistant. According to Bloomberg’s reliable Apple pundit Mark Gurman, iOS 18 will be “one of the biggest iOS updates – if not the biggest – in the company’s history” and will be mostly connected to a “big upgrade to Siri”.
According to Revegnus, another well-known leaker, Apple is developing a proprietary LLM (long language model) to “completely revamp Siri into the ultimate virtual assistant”. It’s about time; while Siri was stunning when it first launched over a decade ago, it has since plateaued. So we can anticipate a lot more conversational and strong voice assistant by the end of 2024.
But what else might benefit from Apple’s work in generative AI? Messages, Apple Music, and Pages are all anticipated to gain big AI-based improvements later this year, and several of Apple’s competitors have lately hinted at what to expect. Google Messages will soon receive Bard skills to aid with texting, and Spotify has already demonstrated that AI-powered DJs are the future of music.
Finally, there’s photography and video, but Apple appears to be taking a more cautious approach than Samsung and Google. The Galaxy S24 cameras rely heavily on AI capabilities, which are somewhat mixed. While Instant Slow-Mo (which creates extra frames of film to convert regular 4K/60p video into slow motion clips) is incredibly clever generative Edit is useful, but it opens the door to digital fraud (even with watermarks).
It will be fascinating to observe how Apple handles this line in all facets of the iPhone. However, another important iPhone feature, privacy, may limit Apple’s ability to go too far with generative AI…
Why is Apple taking its time?
Apple has been repeatedly chastised for not developing its own generative AI, especially because archrival Microsoft has been so successful in spreading its Copilot AI to practically every area of Windows and its own apps.
But there’s a likely reason for Apple’s sluggishness, and it’s related to consumer privacy. Apple takes a strong stand on this, frequently touting its products’ privacy-protecting features as one of their primary advantages. AI tools are infamous for collecting user data and making privacy concessions, so it’s no surprise that Apple has taken its time with this, presumably to ensure that AI is as pro-privacy as possible.
Furthermore, Apple does not normally rush into a new market before it is ready instead, it prefers to wait a bit longer before overwhelming its competitors with something it believes is far superior. We saw it with the original iPhone, as well as the Apple Vision Pro, and it appears that generative AI is the newest object to receive this treatment from Apple.
It’s unclear whether Apple’s AI is better than ChatGPT and Copilot, but it appears that we’ll find out sooner rather than later.
