Apple’s Misunderstood AI

Welcome back! 🍎
Here’s the latest with Apple.

• Apple makes “Apple Intelligence” official!

• The ChatGPT x Apple deal is live

• Is iOS 18 one of the best updates ever?

• & more!

📖 Read time: 4.2 minutes

📊 Poll

Last week, I asked: Will WWDC ‘24 live up to the hype? Why or why not?

Here are some of my favorite replies:

This week: Will you opt-in to use the new Apple Intelligence features once they arrive later this year? More on this below.

🗞️ The Latest

😬 Apple’s Misunderstood AI

At WWDC on Monday, Apple announced its big plans for AI, which now stands for Apple Intelligence. However, there’s a lot of confusion and misinformation out there. Let’s break it down.

What is Apple Intelligence?

• Apple Intelligence is the name of Apple’s upcoming AI features coming later this year to iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

• Apple will be using a combination of proprietary on-device AI models, cloud-based models, and even leveraging ChatGPT.

What Can AI Do?

• Writing: AI will be able to auto-generate, proofread, and rewrite your text anywhere you write it, even in 3rd party apps.

• AI Emoji: You can create an AI-generated emoji based on what you type. There’s also an Image Playground that lets you generate personalized images from prompts.

• Siri 2.0: The new Siri will sound more natural, remember context across requests, have on-screen awareness, more control over apps and actions, and a fresh new look.

• Photos: Improved photo editing with object removal, conversational search, and more.

• Notifications: AI will understand the context of notifications and push the most important ones to the top for you.

• A lot more.

Privacy Matters

• Apple Intelligence runs on-device when possible. But more complex tasks are sent to Apple’s Private Cloud Compute environment.

• This server “cryptographically ensures that iPhone, iPad, and Mac do not talk to a server unless its software has been publicly logged for inspection.”

• The servers are built on Apple Silicon and the data is never saved in the cloud.

• Plus, if you access ChatGPT through an Apple device, your IP address will be obscured and OpenAI won't store any requests.

• The new AI features will be opt-in, so users will not be forced to use them.

ChatGPT Integration

• Apple also confirmed that ChatGPT will be built into the iPhone.

• Not only will this integration be off by default, but you will also have to confirm that you want to send your query to ChatGPT every time you want to use the function. You can also choose to never be prompted to use ChatGPT on iPhone.

• So, think of the ChatGPT integration as the third option for AI on the iPhone.

• First, you have the on-device tasks for all of the features mentioned above.

• Then, you have Private Cloud Compute for more complex tasks.

• Finally, as a last resort, you have ChatGPT if neither of the top two options serve you the result you were looking for.

• There’s an algorithm that determines whether a task requiring AI should be processed on-device or offloaded to the cloud. So everything happens fast.

The Misunderstanding

• Elon Musk was the reason Apple caught some initial backlash from their AI announcement.

• He posted a meme shortly after WWDC implying that Apple would siphon your data and send it to OpenAI, which is clearly not accurate.

• However, this didn’t stop Elon Musk from continuing to post. Later stating that he would ban Apple devices due to the AI features.

• This led to a mass misunderstanding of Apple’s AI and how it works.

The Requirements

• iPhone 15 Pro and newer, or any iPad/Mac with an M-series chip.

• This is likely due to the need of 8GB of RAM, which not even the iPhone 15 has.

My take: Apple’s AI implementation is special because of the amount of data points Apple already has on us. For example, when generating an image in the Image Playground, you say “make a photo of mom with a cowboy hat on” and it’ll already know who your mom is without you needing to upload a reference photo, thanks to the Photos app.

Plus, privacy has always been Apple’s biggest competitive advantage and that is the current weak spot in AI currently. Apple can thrive on that aspect alone.

I believe AI is going to fundamentally change how we use our devices and this is just the start for Apple. I’m looking forward to Siri 2.0 and how these AI-injected apps will help us save time.

I enjoyed this conversation with Tim Cook & MKBHD about Apple’s AI.

Side note: Whoever thought of AI = Apple Intelligence is a genius and deserves a raise. Because in the not-so-distant future, average consumers are going to hear others say “AI” and they will instantly think it stands for Apple Intelligence.

🤔 Apple isn’t Paying OpenAI

Apple and OpenAI made their partnership official but the terms of the deal were never made public. But now, we know some details on the monetary end.

• Apple isn’t paying OpenAI as part of the partnership.

• Instead, they believe that the exposure of putting ChatGPT on hundreds of millions of devices is of equal or greater value than monetary payments.

• Apple still plans to make money from AI via revenue-sharing with OpenAI, or whoever else they partner with in the future.

• The strategy is to take a cut from AI partners that “monetize results in chatbots on Apple platforms.”

So basically, Apple’s AI is being financed by Microsoft. What a time to be alive.

My take: I think this makes sense. Hundreds of millions of Apple users might have heard of ChatGPT but have no clue how it works or why they’d need it. This partnership could open their eyes to the possibilities and will likely lead to a spike in ChatGPT Plus subscriptions.

Side note: Will search engines even exist in 5-10 years? This AI progression sure seems to point to “no.”

📲 iOS 18 Tidbits & Missing Features

iOS 18 Beta 1 was released earlier this week and I made a detailed video showing off the new features. Here are some standouts and a few lesser-known changes.

• Customization: You can now customize the Home Screen and change the color of icons, there’s a revamped Control Center, Locking apps with Face ID is now possible, and you can customize the Lock Screen buttons.

• Messages: You can send any emoji or sticker as a tapback reaction, the link cards are now colorful, you can schedule messages, and more.

• Messages via Satellite is an insane new iOS 18 feature and we just got a first look at how it works.

• Voicemail transcriptions now appear on the Lock Screen as a notification.

• The Apple Music queue is fixed!

• Podcasts adds tappable timestamps in the show notes.

• You can now keep files downloaded in the Files app.

• Phone now supports T9 dialing.

• The iPhone 15 now shows the time when it runs out of battery.

• Game Mode makes your iPhone faster & more responsive when playing games.

• You can use Apple Pay with Google Chrome and other browsers.

Missing Features

• Most, if not all, of the Apple Intelligence features are expected later this year and they will be included in the Betas.

• iPhone Mirroring with macOS Sequoia is not available in the first round of Betas but it should come over the next few weeks.

• The Mail app will soon get an auto-categorization feature for filtering your inbox

• And for the visionOS 2, the upgraded Mac Virtual Display feature is not yet available but should come later this year.

watchOS 11 and macOS Sequoia

• watchOS 11 adds fitness features such as a new Vitals app, training load, the ability to pause rings while maintaining your streak, and better custom workouts.

• It also adds sleep tracking without a schedule, a better Smart Stack with live activities on the widgets, a new Photos watch face, Check In, better custom workouts, and more. Here’s my detailed video on watchOS 11.

• macOS Sequoia adds a new stunning wallpaper & a vintage Mac wallpaper, window tiling, better video conferencing, the AI features & iPhone Mirroring coming later this year, the Passwords app, and more. Here’s my detailed video on macOS Sequoia.

My take: The amount of customizability with iOS 18 was unexpected but I think we’re all happy to finally see Apple give us what we’ve been wanting for years. There are several additional changes to come, as the final release won’t arrive until September.

📰 Quick Bites

• Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak reacts to Apple Intelligence [Video]

• iOS 18 - 120+ New Features & Changes [Video]

• watchOS 11 - 40+ New Features & Changes [Video]

• macOS Sequoia - 50+ New Features & Changes [Video]

• Apple Provides Updated Look at Next-Generation CarPlay

• Tim Cook is not 100% sure Apple can stop AI hallucinations

• Demand for Apple Intelligence will drive an iPhone supercycle

• Japan Passes Law to Allow Third-Party App Stores on the iPhone

• Apple Reveals How Many iPhones Were Running iOS 17 Before WWDC

• Apple and Canon Announce Mirrorless Camera Lens Designed for Spatial Video Capture

• Hackers Access Tile's Internal Tracking Tools, Customer Data

• Microsoft’s all-knowing Recall AI feature is being delayed

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