After nearly two years of waiting, Apple has finally jumped on the bandwagon of generative artificial intelligence (AI), with the big news announced by the company’s CEO Tim Cook at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). Kicking off the keynote, Cook announced, “I’m excited to introduce deep new intelligence capabilities that we hope will inspire developers, delight users, and make our platforms even smarter and more useful than ever.”
However, the details that Apple later provided at the keynote and on its website qualified the scope of this technological leap, which will only be available to current iPhone users who have one of the two most powerful models, the 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max – and in 2024 it will be limited to users who speak and write in American English.
The new Apple Intelligence system and the expected deep update to Siri – coming in the fall and in the testing phase, with the new operating system iOS 18 – will displace more than 90% of current iPhone users if they do not buy a new smartphone. In the absence of official data from Apple, estimates suggest that there are around 1.5 billion active iPhone users worldwide, and various analysts estimate that the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max – the world’s best-selling phones – may number close to 100 million units. This means that Apple Intelligence will not even reach 7% of the total number of Apple mobile phone users. What’s more, users outside the US will also be excluded from this rate for now.
Only the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max — out of the 24 models compatible with the new iOS 18 — will be able to work with Apple Intelligence. This system includes features already offered by other tech giants, such as summarizing documents, notes, audio and phone calls, suggesting replies to messages, reviewing texts and adjusting style and tone, as well as new ones, such as creating new emoticons and images from scratch with a few simple guidelines. Other iPhones also won’t have access to the revamped digital assistant Siri, which will be able to understand requests much better, maintain a conversation thread with the user, and ask ChatGPT to solve any questions it can’t answer.
Beyond phones, Apple Intelligence and the new Siri will also be available on tablets and computers with Apple processors – M1 or later. In the case of the iPad, this will benefit five of the 15 models compatible with the iPadOS 18 operating system; and 13 of 18 PC models compatible with macOS 15 Sequoia. Apple began selling Macs with Apple processors in 2020, iPads Pro in 2021 and iPads Air in 2022. All iPad mini and iPad models without these processors will not have the new smart features.
Nor will Apple’s jump to generative AI affect the Vision Pro mixed reality glasses, despite the fact that it is one of the company’s most advanced and sophisticated devices and is equipped with a more than adequate M2 processor.
Promising features, but not in the short term
The Siri update was also long-awaited on Apple Watches — where the digital assistant performs worse than on iPhones — and on HomePods — which are voice-controlled only with “Hey, Siri.” However, the new Siri also won’t appear on smartwatches, smart speakers, or the Apple TV video player for now.
Apple has not provided any information on whether current models of the various platforms that remain outside the new AI system will have access to some of its features in the future, either through the processor or by accessing the same private cloud computing network. This network — launched on June 10 — will be used to solve the most complex AI-generating queries. There are also no details on when these features will be available in other languages, such as Spanish. The tech giant simply states that Apple Intelligence “will be available in beta as part of iOS 18, iPadOS 18 and macOS Sequoia this fall in US English. Some features, software platforms and additional languages will appear in the coming year.”
The fact that the revamped Siri won’t be available on smartwatches or smart speakers has disappointed tech analysts. Before the keynote speech, Ex Macworld editor Jason Snell posted on SixColors: “When I run or walk my dog, I usually just use AirPods and my Apple Watch. I’m theoretically protected by Siri, but I usually avoid talking to her because she’s unreliable.”
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, who received a detailed leak of all the major announcements days in advance, predicted that Apple’s AI would have the advantage of being available on all Apple devices. Now he warns that the company’s AI push will take years to pay off and complete, arguing that the new features “probably won’t do much to boost iPhone sales this year.”
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