Apple Intelligence, the much-awaited integration of artificial intelligence (AI) features into Apple devices, was the highlight of the company’s “It’s Glowtime” event on Monday. These features were first unveiled at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2024 in June. The company is rolling these out for the iPhone 16 series that was launched at the September 9 event, as well as last year’s iPhone 15 Pro models. Features like writing tools, notification summary, and object removal tool will be available in beta once the iOS 18.1 update rolls out next month.
Apple Intelligence features announced at iPhone 16 launch event
While Apple Intelligence features have been known since WWDC 2024 in June, the tech giant announced which features will be rolled out in beta with the iOS 18.1 update. These features will also be released with iPadOS 18.1 and macOS Sequoia 15.1.
Apple confirmed that AI features will be available on iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, iPhone 16 Pro Max, iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, and iPad and Mac with M1 and later devices and the Siri language set. For American English. Let’s take a look at the features that users will be able to try out soon.
- Writing Instruments: The AI-powered writing tools will be available on various Apple apps like Mail, Messages, Notes and others. These tools provide many features such as text summarization, text creation, text refinement, and more. Users can also ask to make a message or email longer using AI. Moreover, users can also rewrite it in different styles using manual prompts.
- Notification Summary: Another interesting feature that comes with the iOS 18 update is Notification Summary. This feature uses Apple Intelligence to reduce the clutter from large amounts of information in two ways. First, priority information is automatically evaluated by AI and added to the top of the stack. These information will also be presented briefly so that users do not have to read the details. Second, AI will understand the content of the notification and show only those that require immediate attention.
- Clear in images: The Clean Up feature is essentially an object removal feature that allows users to remove unwanted objects or people from an image. These could be people obstructing the view of a famous monument or an inappropriate object placed in the background of a memorable selfie. The AI can remove these automatically, or let the user highlight a particular object or person to remove them and fill the background.
- Find AI in photos: Apple Intelligence will allow users to search their Photos app and the images stored there with natural language queries. Users can ask about specific images using descriptive prompts.
- Email Summary: AI will also be able to summarize long email threads to prioritize the most important features.
- Image Playground: It will allow users to create custom emoji or generate images using Apple Intelligence.
- Private Cloud Compute: Private cloud compute runs “stateless data processing” where the user’s device sends data to the PCC for the sole purpose of fulfilling the user’s inference request. Apple also claimed that user data remains on the server only until it is returned to the device and that “no user data is retained in any form after the response is returned.”
The first set of features will be available in US English. Localized English languages will be added in December, and support for more languages like Chinese, Spanish, French, and Japanese will be added next year.
AI features that will be available with future updates
While the above mentioned features will be available later this month, there are other Apple Intelligence features that will be available with future iOS updates. These include ChatGPT-related features, Siri upgrades, as well as Genmoji.
- ChatGPT Integration: ChatGPT, OpenAI’s chatbot, will be integrated within Siri and systemwide writing tools. It will also provide image and document processing capabilities of various devices within the device. The most important use-case will be given to Siri, which will be able to access the chatbot with the user’s consent, and provide answers to web-related questions as well as those that require deep expertise.
- Smarter Siri: Siri, the virtual assistant for Apple devices, is also getting a major upgrade. Apple has promised a new AI-powered conversation capability that will allow AI tools to interact with users in natural language. Siri will be able to perform more complex tasks as well as within different apps.
- Genmoji: Apple Intelligence will also release Genjomi, a visual tool that will transform a rough sketch into a corresponding image. Users can also upload their own images and turn them into artistic interpretations.
- Visual Intelligence: Users can tap the camera control button to activate the AI and get more information about the captured images. They can also book reservations or tickets for a venue. It is a visual lookup tool similar to Google Lens. Additionally, it will also be integrated with ChatGPT to offer advanced computer vision processing. Apple says users can upload an image of a mathematical problem and find its solution.
