Apple made subtle references to an impending AI redesign during the release of the most recent iPad Pro and iPad Air. The announcement will take place at the WWDC 2024 developers conference next month. Claimed to be the largest software upgrade Apple has issued since the original iOS, iOS 18 is reportedly packed with generative AI technologies.
Cloud infrastructure is necessary for certain generative AI experiences that can be accessed on Android handsets. In contrast, Apple is rumored to be choosing on-device AI capabilities because the most recent models of Macs, iPads, and iPhones come with chips that have dedicated neural processors that can handle on-device AI workloads.
An internal AI plan
As to the most recent report by Mark Gurman of Bloomberg, Apple is investing heavily on its own cloud infrastructure and internal AI technologies. For reduced latency and more privacy, the majority of the forthcoming AI experiences will be handled on-device. According to the story, Apple may be collaborating with Google/OpenAI to meet customer demand for generative AI chatbots, even though the company isn’t developing its own like ChatGPT or Gemini. Therefore, it is assumed that an AI chatbot on an iPhone will have a fairly comparable experience to the current third-party alternatives.
Redesigning first-party iPhone apps using AI
This year, generative AI-backed features will be clearly visible in several first-party iPhone apps, including Note, Photos, Apple Music, Siri, and more, according to the same report. Additionally, the business is said to have created a model specifically for these activities that is more accurate and efficient than models that are publicly available.It’s expected that the Notes app will get generative propose and edit features, meaning that it will be able to fix typos and syntax as well as recommend tweaks to make it sound better. It is probable that an on-device large language model (LLM) powers these services.
Similar to Galaxy AI, the Photos app is probably going to get features that allow users to add or delete backgrounds using generative AI. With the iOS 18 update, Apple may also roll out AI-powered video editing capabilities, according a prior Bloomberg story.It’s also rumored that Siri will get an AI upgrade, increasing its power. It’s also rumored that the AI capabilities of the Apple Music app will allow it to provide features like automatically created playlists and more.
Given that the iPhone Pro series has more powerful chips than the entry-level devices and can handle AI workload more effectively, it’s also possible that Apple will restrict some functions to this series.
Similar to this, Apple is probably going to include AI capabilities into Pages, Numbers, and Keynote, its productivity suite, for iPad and Mac. These improvements will be unveiled by Apple at WWDC 2024 on June 10 and will be available on the upcoming iPhone models in September.
