Apple Intelligence had a starring role in today’s “Glowtime” event, but the company’s artificial intelligence tools will be a no-show on the iPhone 16 next week. Instead, company execs tipped a phased rollout over the next few months beginning in October.
When Apple Intelligence was introduced at WWDC in June, Apple said it would “be available in beta as part of iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia this fall in the US.” Since then, reports suggested it would be pushed to iOS 18.1 with other features delayed until 2025.
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Apple confirmed that today, announcing that Apple Intelligence “will start rolling out next month with iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1, with more features launching in the coming months.” That will presumably give Apple more time to fine-tune and control each feature launch, though it could make it harder for consumers to know what’s available and when.
Here’s what to expect from Apple Intelligence in late 2024 and early 2025.
What Is Apple Intelligence?
Apple Intelligence is not a single operating system or AI model. Instead, it’s a slew of generative AI features grouped under a new branding. It can “create language and images, take action across apps, and draw from personal context to simplify and accelerate everyday tasks,” Apple says.
A18 Pro chip (Credit: Apple)
Apple Intelligence can only run on the newest devices (iPhone 15 Pro and up, plus iPads or Macs with at least an M1 chip). That’s not only because Apple wants to cash in on upgrades, but also because Apple Intelligence requires “a chip with substantial high-performance compute,” Sribalan Santhanam, VP of Apple’s silicon engineering group, said at the iPhone 16 event.
Apple created a new chip for the iPhone 16, which is the company’s first device “designed from the ground up for Apple Intelligence,” says CEO Tim Cook. The A18 and A18 Pro are optimized for running large, generative models, with up to 2X faster processing for machine learning, 17% more system memory bandwidth, and more energy efficiency.
Generative AI In Every Nook and Cranny
What’s up first for Apple Intelligence? Starting next month, Writing Tools will appear “almost anywhere you type,” says Craig Federighi, senior VP of software engineering at Apple. They can help you proofread, re-write, and summarize text. But be warned, Apple is reportedly still working on preventing AI hallucinations.
This feature, along with the rest of Apple Intelligence, will only be available in US English to start. Apple will expand beyond American English in late 2024, adding English for Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, and the UK. Chinese, French, Japanese, and Spanish arrive in 2025.
Apple Intelligence Writing Tools (Credit: Apple)
In the Notes and Phone apps, you can record, transcribe, and summarize audio. Like Zoom, when you initiate recording on a phone call, the participants are notified. Once the call ends, Apple Intelligence generates a summary of key talking points.
If your phone is flooded with notifications, such as texts and emails, Apple Intelligence will prioritize the most important at the top. Instead of seeing the first few lines of a text or email (i.e. “Hi Sarah, Excited to see you tonight…”) you’ll see a summary of what the email is about, generated by Apple (i.e. “Plans tonight, need arrival time”)
Priority notifications (Credit: Apple)
Finally, Apple’s photo editor will get the ability to remove people or objects from images with a new Clean Up tool. You can also search for specific photos and videos (i.e. “Photo of Sarah playing with a dog”)
Siri Gets a Glow-Up
Apple is promising Siri will be “more natural, flexible, and deeply integrated into the system experience.” It won’t error out if the user stumbles over the words, and can “maintain context from one request to the next.”
She also gets a new look; the familiar swirling ball will be replaced with glowing, on-screen edges. (Hence the event’s “Glowtime” tagline.)
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Illuminated edges signal Siri is listening (Credit: Apple)
You can also type to Siri on the iPhone, iPad, and Mac, or switch between voice and text. Apple equipped Siri with “extensive product knowledge” about its devices, which can help Apple users answer questions about features and settings, such as how to take a screen recording or share a Wi-Fi password. Eventually, the new-and-improved Siri will be able to take actions within apps, and “gain onscreen awareness.”
Coming Later This Fall: Image Playground, Genmojis
Among the Apple Intelligence features scheduled for “later this year and in the months following” are its image-generation options. (Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman suggests we’ll see them with iOS 18.2 in December.)
Image Playground (Credit: Apple)
The Image Playground will let you create images with AI in three styles: Animation, Illustration, or Sketch. It lives in its own app, and is also integrated into other apps, including Messages, so you can send your creations to friends. An Image Wand can turn rough sketches into full images, or create images from context in a designated area.
Your friends also might get a kick out of your “Genmojis,” or generative AI emojis, that can be custom generated with a simple prompt.
Importantly, Apple Intelligence images are generated on device. Apple is touting this secure approach as a differentiator from competitors. It keeps your data all in one place, rather than sending it to a remote server. Still, more sophisticated AI tasks, and those not related to image generation, will be processed off device in Apple’s new Private Cloud Compute network.
Also on tap is a ChatGPT integration, though Apple did not provide a timeline. It only said that users who access ChatGPT through Siri or Writing Tools will have privacy and data protections built in.
