Brian Heater of TechCrunch reports that after months of speculation, Apple Intelligence took center stage at WWDC 2024 in June. He writes:
After months of speculation, Apple Intelligence took center stage at WWDC 2024 in June. The platform was announced in the wake of a torrent of generative AI news from companies like Google and Open AI, causing concern that the famously tight-lipped tech giant had missed the boat on the latest tech craze.
Contrary to such speculation, however, Apple had a team in place, working on what proved to be a very Apple approach to artificial intelligence. There was still pizzazz amid the demos — Apple always loves to put on a show — but Apple Intelligence is ultimately a very pragmatic take on the category.
Apple Intelligence (yes, AI for short) isn’t a standalone feature. Rather, it’s about integrating into existing offerings. While it is a branding exercise in a very real sense, the large language model (LLM) driven technology will operate behind the scenes. As far as the consumer is concerned, the technology will mostly present itself in the form of new features for existing apps.
We learned more during the Apple’s iPhone 16 event, which was held on September 9. During the event, Apple touted a number of AI-powered features coming to their devices, from translation on the Apple Watch Series 10, visual search on iPhones and a number of tweaks to Siri’s capabilities. Apple also revealed that Intelligence would launch in beta this fall in the U.S. in English, with a wider international rollout with additional languages planned through the end of this year into 2025. […]
Apple Intelligence
Cupertino marketing executives have branded Apple Intelligence: “AI for the rest of us.” The platform is designed to leverage the things that generative AI already does well, like text and image generation, to improve upon existing features. Like other platforms including ChatGPT and Google Gemini, Apple Intelligence was trained on large information models. These systems use deep learning to form connections, whether it be text, images, video or music.
The text offering, powered by LLM, presents itself as Writing Tools. The feature is available across various Apple apps, including Mail, Messages, Pages and Notifications. It can be used to provide summaries of long text, proofread and even write messages for you, using content and tone prompts. […]
A Guided Tour of iPhone 16 & iPhone 16 Pro | Apple
Hearing Aid feature for AirPods Pro 2
Who gets Apple Intelligence and when?
While we saw demos at WWDC, we’re going to have to wait until the fall to get our hands on a beta of Apple Intelligence. The first release will come in October in the U.S., solely with support for English. In December, localized English in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and the U.K. will launch, and sometime in 2025 Apple planns to roll out Chinese, French, Japanese and Spanish language compatibility. As it happens, fall is also when the public versions of iOS/iPadOS 18 and Mac Sequoia will hit the App Store. The offering will be free to use, so long as you have one of the following pieces of hardware:
- iPhone 15 Pro Max (A17 Pro)
- iPhone 15 Pro (A17 Pro)
- iPad Pro (M1 and later)
- iPad Air (M1 and later)
- MacBook Air (M1 and later)
- MacBook Pro (M1 and later)
- iMac (M1 and later)
- Mac mini (M1 and later)
- Mac Studio (M1 Max and later)
- Mac Pro (M2 Ultra)
Notably, only the Pro versions of the iPhone 15 are getting access, owing to shortcomings on the standard model’s chipset. Presumably, however, the whole iPhone 16 line will be able to run Apple Intelligence when it arrives. […]
Apple Event – September 9th
Apple Intelligence with third-party apps
Apple Intelligence is free. So, too, is access to ChatGPT. However, those with paid accounts to the latter will have access to premium features free users don’t. This will, presumably, be a big driver to the already thriving generative AI platform.
We know for sure that Apple plans to partner with additional generative AI services. The company all but said that Google Gemini is next on that list.
Apple Event – September 12