Google and Microsoft have used their developer conferences as a platform to show off their generative AI tech, and now all eyes are on next week’s Worldwide Developers Conference, where Apple Intelligence is expected to make its debut.
The Cupertino-based company is under a lot of pressure: Apple is lagging behind in the AI race, and it probably feels it needs to go all out to impress fans and shareholders, but that shouldn’t mean overpromising on features.
Reliability First
Apple makes some of the most popular devices in the world, and its AI features should make them even more useful. Many of the AI-powered features require going back to the cloud to get answers or input. But if Apple can perform some useful functions locally on the device, users might ditch cloud-based tools in favor of always-on AI. Voice memos and offline transcription in the Notes app might fit that need.
Apple is likely to roll out notifications, web page summaries, basic text generation and photo editing features, but many browsers, note-taking apps and photo-editing apps already have these features, and to stand out, Apple needs to make its implementation as smooth and seamless as possible.
Privacy First
As Apple is likely to enforce its privacy-first approach, it may not be possible to give Siri and its AI-powered features free reign over all apps. Bloomberg reportsonly the iPhone 15 Pro and iPads or Macs with M1 or newer chips will get the AI features, and it will be opt-in. If this is true, Apple is still being cautious despite being late in the adoption curve of AI features and doesn’t want to get caught up in a user backlash.
The company recently came under fire for its iPad “Crush” ad, which showed creative tools being destroyed in a hydraulic press. This was seen as Apple undervaluing creators, their tools, and the effort it takes to make art by stuffing it into a slim capitalist package. AI is already unpopular among creatives, so Apple may not want to offend them again, so it’s likely to take a non-controversial approach.
Siri Improvements
The biggest change expected is that Apple Improve Siri to better understand your questions, More accurate results. Currently, Siri can’t multitask. If you ask the Assistant to set a 10-minute timer and a 5-minute timer, it’ll set a 15-minute timer instead. We might not need the help of generative AI to solve these problems, but we at least need it to make Siri better.
When Siri can’t access apps as deeply as expected, Apple could bring in its AI assistant to make users’ lives easier by allowing them to create complex Siri Shortcuts to accomplish multi-step tasks.
Rumor has it that Apple Contract with OpenAI The company plans to ramp up AI capabilities across its operating system. It remains to be seen how much of Apple Intelligence will be built on this deal. Given the AI illusion problem, Apple may not want to get directly involved in content-related AI features for now.
Many companies make big promises about their AI-powered features only to be disappointed by inaccurate or biased results. Companies like Google and OpenAI have had to abandon their AI features due to errors and copyright issues. That’s why companies may not want to rely on LLMs (large language models) for content generation.