Apple supercharging Siri and iOS with ‘Apple Intelligence’ and OpenAI

Apple is set to reveal its answer to the artificial intelligence (AI) wildfire that’s sweeping the technology sector: Apple Intelligence. 

According to a report from Bloomberg, the Cupertino company will take to the stage during its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on June 10-14 to announce its new “Apple Intelligence” lineup of AI-powered products and services.

Apple’s plan, per the report, is to unveil a hybrid onboard/cloud approach to integrating AI services throughout its suite of products. Where available, iPhone and iPad will use discrete hardware (onboard chips) to run AI services and, in instances where more powerful models are needed, devices will rely on cloud services.

This should allow Apple to maintain consumer privacy for applications such as predictive text, typing suggestions, and simple queries. But, when it comes to more robust generative features, it appears that the company will be working with OpenAI to ChatGPT — an interesting prospect considering that OpenAI partners with Microsoft for cloud services.

Also of note, Apple will reportedly be supercharging Siri with new capabilities. While Siri was once synonymous with virtual assistants, it’s now begun to show signs of age as it lags behind competitors such as Samsung who’ve already embraced modern generative tech.

The new version of Siri will supposedly be capable of following detailed instructions to perform personalised tasks such as deleting specific emails or performing edits to photos.

While it remains to be seen how Apple’s late arrival to the AI scene will be embraced by consumers, one thing is certain: the general response to the term “Apple Intelligence” has, so far, been roundly negative.

Pundits, consumers, and analysts have long awaited Apple’s initial foray into the world of generative AI in the wake of OpenAI’s landmark launch of ChatGPT. Countless articles have been written speculating that Apple’s fallen behind in the so-called AI race as competitors Microsoft and Google have seemingly scrambled to secure their top spots in the AI sector.

By comparison, the Cupertino company has been relatively quiet on the AI front until now. Hopefully, the launch of AI-generated Apple emojis, a supercharged Siri, and the infusion of “Apple Intelligence” into the company’s products will be enough to keep Apple atop the market value leaderboards for the rest of 2024.

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