Apple Launches Device-Integrated AI Model
Photo Credit: Apple
With the launch of the iPhone 16, Apple introduced its new AI model, dubbed Apple Intelligence. It features a lineup of AI tools designed to make everyday digital life easier. While many questions and doubts remain about the Apple AI, the product is another way for Apple to edge out its competition.
Apple AI encompasses many new features that will be fully-integrated into the devices’ software. Using Writing Tools, users will be able to have their emails, documents, and notes instantly summarized, proofread, or rewritten at their will. Additionally, a Clean Up tool in Photos will help users remove unwanted clutter from their images, and a Memory Movie tool will create photo slideshows from text prompts.
Siri also saw a complete redesign, with an increased focus on supporting iPhone functions and the integration of ChatGPT, which will be put to use when Siri can’t answer a question. Additionally, notifications and emails can now be summarized and prioritized, allowing users to only receive notifications for the most urgent updates. In later updates, new AI features will include the ability to create new emojis and images, and additional changes to Siri will be made.
“All of this goes beyond artificial intelligence — it's personal intelligence,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook at the Worldwide Developers Conference.
On Oct. 21, devices set to US English were able to access some AI features in a beta test, but the full release for the AI was set for Oct. 28. Different languages still do not have a release date for the Apple AI, but according to an Apple press release, other English-speaking countries will gain access to Apple AI in December. All iPhone 16 models, the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, along with all iPads and Macbooks with an M1 chip or later will eventually gain access to the AI.
The New York Times obtained early access to some features, and found the most useful changes to be the Siri updates, audio summaries, and Writing Tools. When it came to the Clean Up tool though, The Times described it as full of pixels and inaccurate. Additionally, the AI tried summarizing an article, but it didn’t give a correct answer, and left out key information.
Additionally, Business Insider stated that Apple’s AI is weaker than many of its competitors. Mark Gurman, a tech reporter from Bloomberg found that “ChatGPT was 25 per cent more accurate than Apple’s Siri,” and claimed it could take two years for Apple Intelligence to be properly implemented into all devices’ systems.
Privacy is another potential issue with the launch of Apple Intelligence. Apple promises that their user’s privacy will be protected. According to Apple, with the help of Private Cloud Compute, an AI processor engine that performs calculations and processes applications, user data in this AI model will not be shared or stored.
This engine can run over 30 trillion operations per second, but has “huge technical challenges in terms of memory,” Reece Hayden told the Financial Times. Hayen is an analyst at ABI Research, a technology intelligence company. ChatGPT is also only implemented through Siri or Writing Tools, but precautions were made so it won’t store any requests or reveal IP addresses, which ChatGPT usually does.
Additionally, ChatGPT has been shown to perpetuate bias in its responses. In one example, according to Stanford University, it made numerous false “arrests” of black men when asked to identify criminals. Users of Apple AI can choose to disable the use of ChatGPT if desired, though.
This upcoming update is another way for Apple to advance the iPhone, as its competitors have also begun to deploy generative AI. Google, Microsoft, and other companies have already capitalized on the technology. The Google Pixel 9 has many similar features to Apple AI, like notes for calls, clean up tools for photos, text-to-image technology, and was already released in August.
According to reports by Forbes and Bloomberg Businessweek, Apple had to cancel its plans to engineer their own electric car to prioritize its AI, and many jobs were impacted by this switch in gears.