It is almost certain that Apple is currently busy developing their answer to generative artificial intelligence. Google, Microsoft and OpenAI have gone before them, but Apple is lagging behind.
Still, we don’t have to wait much longer, Apple is working hard behind the scenes to bring AI to your iPhone. Generative AI may be the most important part of iOS 18 and iPhone 16, but how will Apple approach this?
Generative AI in short
Generative artificial intelligence (AI) refers to systems capable of generating new, original content based on patterns learned from existing data. These systems use algorithms, such as generative adversarial networks (GANs), to produce images, texts, or music that resemble human creations, for example.
They learn patterns and structures in data sets and then create new content that follows these patterns. These technologies have the potential to stimulate creativity and promote innovation by generating new ideas and concepts.
Apple is lagging behind
Over the past year, AI ‘Artificial Intelligence’ has undergone incredible developments. After ChatGPT, Google and Microsoft have also introduced their own chatbot. Apple lagged behind, but they seem to be making up for that in iOS 18. In fact, according to internal sources, iOS 18 would be the biggest update ever!
Apple would fully focus on artificial intelligence this year to make up for their ‘lag’. Rumors have previously appeared that Apple wants to launch an AI model that works completely locally. We try to outline the future of Apple’s generative artificial intelligence.
Collaboration with Gemini
Rumors report that Apple is in talks with Google to implement certain AI features in iOS. Apple would have developed Google’s for this AI model Gemini want to use. Google offers three variants of this that may be used by other parties under license.
Apple is said to be interested in cloud-based tasks, for example looking up objects in a photo (Google lens), generating images and texts. For (simple) tasks performed locally and for tasks involving personal data, Apple may want to use its own language model to ensure privacy.
Apple GPT and AI solutions
John Giannandrea heads a team that is currently busy developing AI models for the iPhone, among others. According to Bloomberg a ChatGPT competitor is specifically being developed, internally it has been called Apple GPT, but that will ultimately not be the name of Apple’s chatbot.
According to rumors, Apple is experimenting with improvements around Siri for AI. In addition, work is also being done on the automatic generation of texts, images and videos. This also includes implementing AI solutions and automations. In addition, Apple also wants to innovate instead of following along and is reportedly working on a tool with which you can animate images by providing a description.
Chatbot is already being tested
Apple’s chatbot is reportedly already being used by Apple Care employees. By asking questions to the chatbot, employees can help customers with problems by answering technical questions.
Improvements for Siri
Siri is the basis of Apple’s AI solutions. Rumors report that Siri is expected to function better with a new language model. The Commands app will also have more functions and Siri can execute multiple commands in succession.
The chance that Siri will become some kind of chatbot is small. Apple wants to keep control and ensure that Siri shares reliable information on Apple’s behalf. However, it will become easier to use the assistant.
Now you still have to ask Siri specific questions, this will probably become more natural in the future, just like with ChatGPT. This allows you to have a better conversation and AI can help Siri understand you better with limited information.
So in the future you can ask Siri to send a message to someone with the most important information. The assistant can then compose a coherent message so that you can send a full-fledged message that you must first approve.
Advanced search with AI
Bloomberg reports that iOS 18 will have an advanced search function. Apple is said to be planning to provide Spotlight with a large language model, meaning that the search function will be powered by AI. This allows Spotlight to perform more complex tasks and answer complicated questions. This would also allow the search function to enable or disable even more functions and search deeper in apps without having to open the app in question.
AI in Apple apps
There is a good chance that Apple will add generative artificial intelligence to all their standard applications. Which functions are not yet known, but it is expected that you can easily summarize notes, articles and documents, compile playlists in Music, edit photos with AI (for example adjusting weather conditions or animate still images), generate presentations in Keynote, automatically sentences add to Messages, etc.
Siri chatbot completely local
Whether Apple will release a chatbot comparable to ChatGPT is still unclear, but a new research paper from Apple describes a new method for running so-called LLMs on ‘weak’ hardware.
LLMs are gigantic language models that ChatGPT, for example, also uses. This service uses powerful large online servers. Thanks to the new method, an iPhone would be sufficient to control a complete language model, allowing Apple to introduce a smart chatbot that runs completely locally.
For Apple, it is extremely important that artificial intelligence runs completely or a large part of it locally and offline on the user’s device. For that reason, Apple is still cautious about implementing AI. This new technology makes Ai for iPhone, iPad and Mac one step closer.
Apple AI release date
During WWDC 2024, which will take place in June, Apple will announce new software updates including iOS 18 and iPadOS 18. The successor to macOS Sonoma will also be presented. The updates are then expected to be available to the general public in the fall.
It remains to be seen whether Apple’s AI functions will immediately become available worldwide, but perhaps some new functions will first be limited to English. In addition, specific AI solutions are also expected for the iPhone 16 (Pro) to be announced later this year.