Apple's (AAPL) Worldwide Developers Conference event will kick off with a keynote address from CEO Tim Cook at its headquarters in Cupertino, California, on Monday, June 10. One of Apple's most anticipated events in years, WWDC 2024 is expected to mark the launch of the company's big push into generative AI.
Wall Street has been eager to know what Apple has planned over the past few months as rivals have rolled out — or in some cases retreated — their own generative AI products. Apple has largely stayed out of discussions about AI, except for a few passing mentions on earnings calls and elsewhere.
During the company's second-quarter conference call in May, Cook seemed to be preparing for potential AI news from WWDC while touting Apple's capabilities in both hardware and software.
“We believe in the transformative power and potential of AI, and believe our unique seamless integration of hardware, software and services, breakthrough Apple Silicon with our industry-leading Neural Engine, and unwavering focus on privacy give us distinct advantages in this new era,” he said.
As if that wasn't enough, Apple's head of marketing, Greg Joswiak, posted on X (formerly Twitter) that WWDC was “really awesome!”, capitalizing both words. Get it? AI
In addition to unveiling its broader AI strategy, Apple is also expected to announce the latest versions of its various operating systems, including iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, macOS and tvOS, as well as the first major update to its visionOS, which powers its Vision Pro mixed reality headsets.
Still, everything else will almost certainly take a backseat to Apple's AI news.
Siri is getting smarter
Bloomberg's Apple prognosticator Mark Gurman said a highlight of WWDC 2024 will be a new generative AI-powered version of Apple's smart assistant, Siri, that will give Siri the ability to control individual functions within apps, making it much more capable than the current Siri on the iPhone.
Siri has been in decline for years, proving more useful for setting timers and playing songs on Spotify than acting as a true digital helper, but a generative AI version of Siri has the potential to be an actual smart assistant that can offer everything from proactive tips to improved responses to the random questions that pop into your head throughout the day.
Bloomberg's Gurman also said that Apple's AI features, called Apple Intelligence, will affect many other apps, including Messages, Notes and Safari.
Just how Apple will make a smarter Siri is still an open question: According to reports from Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, Apple is in talks with OpenAI about licensing its GPT software, and in separate talks with Google (GOOG, GOOGL) about licensing its Gemini software.
Partnering with either company could be complicated. OpenAI is already working closely with Microsoft (MSFT), which is trying to differentiate its PC business from Apple by highlighting some features in Windows 11 that are powered by GPT-4o. Google, meanwhile, uses its Gemini AI models in Android phones that compete directly with Apple's iPhone. Google also works with Samsung to provide AI software for its Galaxy line of smartphones.
It will also be interesting to see whether consumers or Wall Street are more excited about Apple's AI rollout. Investors and analysts have been waiting for Apple to announce some answers to the AI-generated explosion, but so far consumer use cases have been relatively limited.
Even if Apple rolls out some really cool features, consumers are unlikely to drop everything and buy a new iPhone when the company unveils its latest models in September. Instead, most consumers will likely wait to shell out for a new device until they see some long-awaited hardware upgrade or their current model becomes unbearably slow.
As for iPadOS and macOS, we expect Apple to roll out the same AI features to these operating systems that it added to iOS. In general, we expect Apple to be pretty cautious with its AI moves. The company is sensitive to how consumers perceive its products, and given the backlash that competitors like Google and Microsoft have received for their AI missteps, it's hard to imagine Apple announcing something that it's not completely confident about.
Aside from AI, Apple is also expected to unveil Rich Communication Services (RCS) for iPhone, which means users will finally be able to send high-quality images and videos via text to their Android friends. RCS is more secure than the SMS standard that Apple currently uses for sending texts from iPhone to Android.
Gurman also said that Apple will finally let users arrange app icons however they like on their iPhone home screens, without being tied to the traditional grid layout.
There are sure to be many more announcements coming out of the big show, and Yahoo Finance will be bringing you the latest news live.
Contact Daniel Howley at dhowley@yahoofinance.com. Follow him on Twitter. Daniel Howley.
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