At the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2024, Apple unveiled “Apple Intelligence,” its name for a new suite of AI features that will be rolled out across the iPhone, Mac, and other devices. Starting later this year, the tech giant is introducing what it claims to be a more conversational Siri, custom AI-generated “Genmoji,” and access to OpenAI’s GPT-4o, allowing Siri to turn to the chatbot when it cannot handle specific requests.
The company, which once refused to use the term “artificial intelligence” when discussing its machine learning features, now appears to be catching up with the table-stakes features that Google, Microsoft, and others have already introduced in the past year.
According to Apple, the AI features will be available only on the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max, as well as iPads or Macs with M1 or later chips, and solely when the language is set to English. The features will start rolling out this fall with the release of iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia.
One of the key highlights is the enhanced Siri, which Apple claims will have “onscreen awareness,” allowing it to understand what users are asking and take action with their content across various apps. Users will also be able to type to Siri instead of just talking.
In line with Apple’s emphasis on privacy, many features will work on-device when possible. However, for more complicated requests, the device will automatically make a call to the cloud, utilizing what Apple calls “Private Cloud Compute.” The models processing these requests will run on servers “powered by Apple Silicon,” and the company assures that it will never store or access user data on its servers. Additionally, independent experts will be allowed to inspect the code running on Apple’s servers to verify privacy.
Apple is also introducing “Genmoji,” a feature that will generate emoji-like reactions on the fly, and an image generation feature called Image Playground, which will work across several apps and provide an API for developers to include it in their apps.
Furthermore, Apple is bringing AI to the Photos app, enabling users to search for specific actions or objects pictured in their library and introducing features similar to Google’s Magic Eraser, such as the ability to erase people from photos.
Notably, Apple has confirmed its partnership with OpenAI, as ChatGPT, powered by GPT-4o, will be integrated into iOS, macOS, and iPadOS “later this year.” When Siri cannot handle a request, it will seek permission to send queries, documents, or photos to ChatGPT and present its responses to users. Apple stated that it would support other AI models in the future and that ChatGPT will also be available for use in its AI writing tools and image generation features.
