‘AI’ is for Apple Intelligence at WWDC
Apple Intelligence, integrated into iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia, utilises the acceleration hardware built into Apple silicon to understand and generate language and images, perform tasks across apps, and leverage personal context to streamline daily activities.
The company was predictably quick to emphasise privacy, with many AI tasks said to be processed on-device to protect user data.
Among the enhanced context awareness and ability to integrate third-party models into its system-level AI services – beginning with GPT-4o courtesy of its deal with OpenAI – there is the standard set of enhancements we’ve seen from Google, Microsoft and Samsung.
Enhanced Writing Tools: Apple Intelligence brings systemwide Writing Tools to iOS, iPadOS, and macOS, allowing users to rewrite, proofread, and summarise text in various apps.
Improved Siri: Siri receives a major upgrade, becoming more contextually aware, responsive to natural language, and capable of performing new actions.
Image Playground and Genmoji: Image Playground enables users to create fun images quickly, while Genmoji allows for personalised avatar creation.
Enhanced Photos and ChatGPT Integration: Photos search is improved, and ChatGPT integration provides access to its expertise for various tasks.
Apple of course highlights privacy as a core principle of Apple Intelligence, with on-device processing for many AI tasks.
Private Cloud Compute extends this privacy focus to the cloud, allowing for more complex requests while ensuring user data remains secure.
Apple executives were also quick to point out that they remain open to scrutiny from independent specialists.
New visual enhancements
iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 introduce redesigned home screens, customisable Control Centres, and enhanced privacy features like app locking with Face ID.
Messages and Mail receive updates, including new categorisation and digest view options.
On the PC side macOS Sequoia brings iPhone mirroring, automatic window tiling, a new Presenter View, virtual backgrounds, and a dedicated Passwords app that’s also available on Windows.
Safari gets a significant update with an AI-powered reader mode and intelligent information extraction.
For its wearables watchOS 11 introduces features Fitbit and Whoop users will recognise like customisable fitness summaries, new Vitals and Translate apps, and a Photos watch face.
