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From ChatGPT getting into a spat with Scarlett Johansson to Google rewriting your search results to suggest you stick some glue on your next pizza, AI is the biggest tech story of 2024 by far. We’ve seen voice assistants duetting with each other, hyper-realistic video conjured from a short prompt and Nvidia become a $3 trillion company all off the back of the most hype behind large language models and their cutting-edge capabilities. Until today, Apple was pretty much absent from the conversation. Now that’s changed in a major way at its WWDC 2024 developers conference in Cupertino, California.
Announced today and launching later this year alongside iOS 18 for iPhone, Apple Intelligence is the company’s attempt to make good on the promise of contextual, personalised computing that didn’t quite come to pass after Siri’s launch 12 years ago. Turns out shouting at your iPhone to set a voice timer, isn’t all that revelatory when compared to the multimodal capabilities of Google’s Gemini model, as well as Meta’s Llama and Microsoft’s Copilot. As such, Apple has gone back to the drawing board with Siri to create an assistant that's fit for 2024.
“Siri no longer just a voice assistant, it’s really a device assistant,” said John Giannandrea, Apple’s senior vice president of machine learning and AI strategy at a press conference in Apple Park’s Steve Jobs Theatre. “You'll be able to type to it and not just use your voice, but much more deeply, it has a very rich understanding of what's happening on your device and the meaning of that data.”
In practice, this means Siri can quickly answer complex questions – such as adding an address from a text message to someone’s contact card – and piece together data from multiple apps without your having to dive into them one by one. A new UI for Siri frames the iPhone's screen whenever you pose it a query and there’s the option to type your instructions out rather than speak them aloud too. Despite these long-awaited improvements, there’s still a long way to go until Siri is on par with what ChatGPT is capable of. So when your prompt is outside Siri’s newfound capabilities, it’ll rope in ChatGPT’s latest GPT-4o model to do that work in its place.
From whipping up a recipe that combines the remaining ingredients in your fridge to interior design advice based on the stylings of your patio, any iPhone with the right chipset will soon be a ChatGPT machine. It’s the biggest change to how the iPhone works in years, and it’ll be a free upgrade from launch. “We wanted to start with the best and we think ChatGPT from OpenAI and the new 4o model represents the best choice for our users today,” says Craig Federighi, Apple's senior vice president of software engineering.
The best of AI on iPhone
To borrow one of Steve Jobs’ favourite Picasso quotes, “Good artists copy; great artists steal.” So if Apple Intelligence seems like a grab bag of existing AI functionality that you’ve probably seen elsewhere, then that’s an entirely fair assessment. In the same way that there were many MP3 players before the iPod, this isn’t about reinventing AI for the iPhone. Instead Apple Intelligence aims to make AI easy to use for the kind of person who likes the idea of having their handset rewrite an email so it’s more congenial in tone. The same goes for transcribing a meeting's conversation and then summarise its highlights or removing photobombers from your pictures a la Google’s Magic Eraser for Pixel phones. All of this functionality is now coming to iPhone in one fell swoop and in some ways it’s an extension of the AI-enabled capabilities Apple’s devices have had for a while now.
“Prior to today's announcement, your phone probably had about 200 ML (machine learning) models on it that were doing everything from helping you take a great picture of the camera to helping you use something like Live Text to just take text from any screenshot,” says Federighi.
This more simplistic but still handy fare has previously been enabled by Apple’s ultra-capable chip tech, and the same goes for the iPhone’s new AI-related shenanigans which are largely enacted on-device for the sake of both speed and privacy. As such, Apple Intelligence has also been designed to work with any iPad or MacBook models that use its M series chips, as well as the iPhone’s most recent Apple A17 Pro that launched with 2023’s iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max. This gives Apple Intelligence the oomph to draw on data across multiple apps, such as Messages, Notes and Maps without seeing your iPhone stutter to a halt.
When a request can’t be processed on device but still doesn’t require the help of ChatGPT, Apple uses something called Private Cloud Compute to draw on greater computing heft while only sharing the data that’s relevant to your request. In other words, you’re not going to suddenly find a whole bunch of your data has been offshored to a cloud server without you knowing.
“Because we take the stance that we want everything to be very private, that's the way that we can use your most personal data to make these experiences actually work,” says Giannandrea.
Infinite emoji
If you’re anything like GQ, the great joy of AI’s current Wild West era is the ability to get these tools to churn out the sublime and ridiculous on command. Why? Because who wouldn’t want to see OpenAI’s Dall-E conjure up an image of Darth Vader facing off against Glen Powell in the main event of Wrestlemania? Conveniently enough, this is the kind of nonsense that Apple’s new Genmoji feature has been built to enable. So if only the sight of a T-Rex on a surfboard will do to illustrate your next iMessage, then you’ll be able to conjure just such a thing with the help of a few easygoing prompts.
“I get so many emails from our customers of all ages and a common email, believe it or not is, ‘Can't you please add this emoji for me?’” says Federighi.
The same ethos applies to Apple’s Image Playground tool, which works in much the same way as Dall-E only in a considerably more structured fashion with image creation limited to three different styles: animation, sketch and illustration. If we had to guess, the driving factor behind its initial cartoon stylings is to ensure the tool isn't not used for disinformation ahead of the US election in November. For now, Image Playground will initially work via Apple’s own apps such as iMessage and Notes – where you can use a tool called ‘Image Wand’ to transform a rough sketch into a more professional picture – but its functionality will be available to any app maker who wants to enable it, such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and the like.
In truth, it’s still quite early days for Apple Intelligence. We’re yet to see it in IRL action ourselves and only those members of Apple’s Developer Program will be able to access the beta programme for iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia in August. A full launch is expected in September alongside the iPhone 16’s arrival, but even then advanced features such as building a travel itinerary and adding it to your calendar app or anything to do with generative video remain out of reach. If free ChatGPT and an infinitely smarter Siri is Apple Intelligence’s opening pitch, then that’s still more than enough to get hyped for what comes next.
