Over the past two years, the world has watched the emergence of a number of incredible artificial intelligence (AI) tools and everyone has been wondering one thing: when will Apple join the party? Now we finally have an answer.
In a recent earnings call (via The Verge), Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed that AI tools will be coming to the company's devices “later this year.” Cook later added that “I think there's a huge opportunity for Apple with generative AI.” While the Apple boss didn't reveal any details, the small amount he did discuss has already been enough to get tongues wagging and speculation running rampant.
It's no surprise that Apple is working on generative AI tools: Cook admitted as much in August 2023, when he explained that Apple has been developing its own generative AI “for years.” But the latest admission is the first time we've seen anyone put a release date on it, even if it's a very rough one.
Since this is a software update (and a major one at that), it seems likely that Apple has its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in mind. The company will use this June event to present its upcoming operating systems and software updates (such as iOS 18). And since its audience is primarily made up of developers, it makes sense that Apple would propose something like generative AI that could give developers a new tool in their iOS arsenal.
On top of that, industry analyst Jeff Pu previously claimed that iOS 18 will be one of Apple's biggest software updates precisely because of its inclusion of generative AI, so Cook's statements seem to confirm Pu's claim. That means there could be a lot to look forward to at WWDC and some big new features coming to your iPhone.
What's on the way?
The most likely update Cook is referring to is a rebooted version of Apple's Siri voice assistant. Bloomberg's trusted Apple commentator Mark Gurman recently predicted that iOS 18 will be “one of the biggest, if not the biggest, iOS updates in the company's history” and that this will largely be tied to a “big update to Siri.”
According to another respected leaker RevegnusApple is creating a proprietary LLM (Large Language Model) to “completely revamp Siri and make it the ultimate virtual assistant.” It's about time: While Siri was impressive when it arrived more than a decade ago, it has since stagnated. So we can expect a much more conversational and powerful voice assistant by the end of 2024.
But what else could benefit from the generative AI Apple has been working on? Messages, Apple Music, and Pages are expected to receive major AI-based improvements later this year, and some of Apple's rivals have recently given us hints about what to expect. Google Messages will soon receive additional powers from Bard to help with texting, while Spotify has already proven that the future of streaming is AI-powered DJs.
Finally, there's photography and video, but it seems likely that Apple will tread more carefully than Samsung and Google here. The Galaxy S24's cameras are all about AI abilities, which are something of a mixed bag. While Instant Slow-Mo (which generates additional frames of video to convert standard 4K/60p video into slow-motion clips) is very clever and useful, Generative Edit opens the floodgates to digital forgery (even with its watermarks).
It will be fascinating to see how Apple continues this line in all aspects of the iPhone. But another key feature of the iPhone, privacy, could also prevent Apple from getting too carried away with generative AI…
Why Apple is taking its time
Apple has been constantly criticized for not releasing its own generative AI, especially since its archrival Microsoft has been so instrumental in spreading its Copilot AI to almost every aspect of Windows and its own apps.
But there is a likely reason for Apple's slowness, and it all comes down to user privacy. Apple takes a strong stance on this, often touting the privacy-protecting capabilities of its devices as one of its key benefits. AI tools are known to collect user data and are known for compromising privacy, so it's no surprise that Apple has taken its time here, presumably to ensure its AI is as pro-privacy as possible.
Furthermore, Apple does not usually launch into a new market before it is ready, but rather prefers to wait a little longer before surprising its rivals with something it considers far superior. We saw it with the original iPhone, for example, and also with the Apple Vision Pro, and it seems that generative AI is the latest to receive this treatment from Apple.
It remains to be seen if Apple's own AI is actually better than ChatGPT and Copilot, but it looks like we'll find out sooner rather than later.
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