Today's Apple iPad Air and iPad Pro event was big on product launches, but quieter on AI. Or was it?
While there was no AI announcement to rival the launch of the iPad Pro (2024) or the new M4 chip, Apple unusually mentioned “AI” on eight different occasions during the event, covering five different new announcements about the technology.
Apple had previously been reluctant to join the chorus of AI hype, preferring to stick to the less current (though often more accurate) “machine learning” during its launch events. But in February, Tim Cook began making unexpectedly bold claims about AI, calling it a “big opportunity for Apple” and that AI tools would come to Apple devices “later this year.”
So what exactly were those subtle AI announcements at Apple's iAPd-focused event? These are the times the Cupertino team gave us a taste of what's coming next month at WWDC 2024…
1. The M4 chip is more powerful than “any current AI PC”
Apple's next-generation silicon was rumored to be for the iPad Pro (2024), but it was still a surprise to see the M4 appear for the first time during a tablet announcement. Naturally, Apple was eager to point out its vast potential in AI.
Tim Millet, Apple's vice president of platform architecture, said that “Neural Engine makes the M4 an outrageously powerful chip for AI,” pointing to the simple example of how it allows you to isolate a subject from its background in 4K video with a tap on Final Cut Pro.
Clearly, Apple believes its silicon forms a solid foundation for AI applications, with Millet adding that “the Neural Engine is an on-chip IP block dedicated to accelerating AI workloads.” And he ended with the boldest claim that “the M4's Neural Engine is more powerful than any neural processing unit in any current AI PC.” We can't verify it yet, but it doesn't seem like a crazy claim.
2. Logic Pro 2 App Has AI-Powered Session Players
The Logic Pro app arrived on the iPad about a year ago, and the new version Apple just announced has some AI-powered 'session players' you can dabble with.
These are designed to play alongside the existing Drummer feature to give you something like a virtual band. Will Hui, Apple's product director of creative apps, said: “Now Drummer will have new bandmates in a feature we're calling Session Players. We're introducing a new bass and keyboard player and, like Drummer, “They are built using AI.”
Since Apple's digital audio workstation was already so much fun, we're eager to give you a audition.
3. iPad Pro uses AI to help you scan documents
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This may not be the most exciting AI use case, but sometimes technology is better suited to helping us with more mundane tasks, and Apple believes it's doing just that with the iPad Pro (2024)'s AI-powered document scanning. .
This comes courtesy of a new “adaptive” True Tone flash, which works in conjunction with AI algorithms to adjust lighting based on document and ambient lighting. John Ternus, Apple's senior vice president of hardware engineering, said: “We've all had the experience of trying to scan a document in certain lighting conditions where it's difficult to avoid casting a shadow; the new Pro solves this problem.”
“It uses AI to automatically detect documents like forms and receipts,” he added. “If there are shadows in the way, take multiple photos instantly with the new adaptive flash. The frames are stitched together and the result is a dramatically better scan.”
We'll have to see how well it works in practice, but because it's built into iPadOS, it will also be in the Camera app, Files, Notes, and third-party apps.
4. The iPad Air 6 is not left out of the AI party
Apple wanted to emphasize that the iPad Pro (2024) is not the only tablet in its range suitable for AI-powered tasks or future applications, even though that tablet is the only one with the new M4 chip.
Melody Kuna, Apple's iPad product design director, said that “with M2, the new [iPad] Air is also an incredibly powerful device for AI. “It's incredibly fast for powerful machine learning features on iPadOS, like Visual Look Up, Subject Lift, and live text capture.”
So while the iPad Pro's M4 chip is capable of a staggering 38 trillion operations per second (which apparently makes it sixty times faster than Apple's A11 Bionic Neural Engine in the iPhone 8), the iPad Air 6 will not be left out of future AI. applications and features on Apple tablets.
5. iPadOS is just getting started with AI
On a similar note, Apple's last mention of AI during the long-awaited iPad launch was reserved for iPadOS.
Will Hui, Apple's creative apps product manager, said, “iPadOS has advanced frameworks like Core ML that make it easy for developers to leverage the Neural Engine to deliver powerful AI capabilities, right on the device.”
Clearly, Apple is treading carefully with AI in its own apps, with only the Logic Pro session players and iPad Pro document scanning making much use of it so far. But he also called on developers to harness the potential of their software (and chips) for AI-powered features. And we can expect to hear a lot more about them next month at WWDC 2024.
