Cupertino, California
CNN
—
Apple has introduced its first generative AI features for the iPhone, signaling the beginning of an entirely new era for the company.
At its annual Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday, the company unveiled its first set of tools powered by “Apple Intelligence,” ranging from personalized emojis generated by Apple's AI, called “Genmoji,” to a significantly smarter Siri that can answer questions about your schedule, what's in your email, and when a loved one's flight is landing.
The company also announced a partnership with ChatGPT developer OpenAI to enhance these features. While this partnership will be a much-needed boost for the company, Apple, which has faced criticism for partnering with a company and technology that has yet to gain public trust and incorporating user input into ChatGPT's dataset, could cause some problems in the future.
Apple, meanwhile, has taken a markedly different approach, saying most AI functions will run on the phone, with inputs decoupled from a far-away cloud of servers.
The big AI push could help drive iPhone sales and services growth for years to come, as users wait longer to upgrade their devices and an uncertain economic environment weighs on consumers, especially in China. The company also faces regulatory scrutiny in Washington, and was overtaken this week by chipmaker Nvidia to become the second-largest publicly traded company in the U.S.
The company said it was impressed with the generative AI tools already on the market, but wanted to take this a step further by personalizing it for Apple users, with privacy in mind.
“As we build these great new features, we want to ensure that the result reflects the core principles of our products: They must be powerful enough to help you do the things that matter most to you,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said during the keynote. “They must be intuitive and easy to use. They must be deeply integrated into your product experience.”
He added: “Most importantly, it must understand you and be rooted in your personal context: your daily life, relationships and communications. And of course, it must be built with privacy in mind from the start.”
The timing is also notable. Apple isn't always the first to adopt and integrate emerging technologies — the company typically aims to research, develop and perfect new technologies for years before incorporating them into new products — but the speed at which the world is adopting generative AI is perhaps accelerating the company's need to have a smartphone equipped with cutting-edge technology.
“We see generative AI as a key opportunity across our products and where we believe we have a distinct advantage,” Cook said on the company's most recent earnings call in early May. The company plans to announce the news in the “coming weeks.”
Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said the company's push into AI will “break new ground for Apple” and have a lasting impact on its products and services.
Let's take a closer look at what Apple announced at its big event.
AI, AI and more AI
Apple is employing generative AI, the much-talked-about artificial intelligence that can provide thoughtful, thorough answers to questions, through its virtual assistant, Siri, essentially turning it into a chatbot for the iPhone.
This allows Siri to perform specific tasks, like recalling photos taken years ago on your device, answering detailed questions about the weather, news, and trivia, or more advanced tasks, like telling you what time your mother's plane is going to land by analyzing information previously sent to her via email. Over time, it will learn your preferences and be able to respond accordingly.
This is similar to what some competitors have already deployed with their generative tools: Siri could also automatically and seamlessly adapt to the user based on voice, audio, natural language, images, and contextual cues.
Users can also create their own personalized photos, such as giving a stylish, cartoon-inspired photo of their mom with a superhero cape, or take cross-app actions, like asking the software to show photos of the whole family, or pull and analyze data from across apps, taking into account what's on the screen, like email and calendar.
If a meeting is rescheduled, Apple Intelligence will process the relevant personal data and review the email your child sent about the recital a few days in advance to alert you if there is a potential conflict.
“Generative AI will give the next-generation iPhone a sixth sense, allowing it to scan and interact with the world around it,” Thomas Hasson, an analyst at market research firm Forrester, told CNN.
“AI will increasingly be a cornerstone of Apple's overall strategy, so there will be an emphasis on future R&D efforts and the expected investments and acquisitions the company makes to support its proposition,” he said.
Apple began the iOS 18 portion of the event by highlighting the new controls and personalization coming to iOS 18, including a revamped look for all icons when in Dark Mode, new tints to complement wallpapers, and a redesigned Control Center available from the Lock screen (where you can swap out the flashlight icon for other tools).
Apple said it's also focusing on privacy and security, including giving users the option to “lock” certain apps so they can only be accessed with Face ID, Touch ID or a user's passcode. The feature could be particularly useful for protecting apps like banking or insurance apps, or if you hand over your phone to show photos or get someone's phone number.
Users will also now be able to “hide” apps so they will only appear in a locked hidden folder, and a hidden app's media will not be visible anywhere else on the phone.
Texting will also be improved: the company says you'll be able to send texts via satellite even if you don't have a cellular or Wi-Fi connection, and it'll also add one of the most requested features for iMessage: the ability to schedule messages.
Just a few months after its release, Apple has unveiled some upgrades to the software that powers its Vision Pro mixed reality headset.
During the most recent earnings call, Cook said that more than half of the Fortune 100 companies have already bought Apple Vision Pro.[We] “We're looking at innovative ways to do things that weren't possible before,” he added.
Vision OS 2 promises to give users a richer experience with larger displays for workstations, new hand gestures to check battery percentage or open the home screen, and advanced machine learning that provides more natural depth when diving deeper into photos in your library.
The company said it is also adding the ability for users to shoot spatial video.
Apple plans to bring Vision Pro to more countries this summer, including the UK, China, Japan, Singapore and Australia.
The upgrade could also boost sales of the pricier Vision Pro, which starts at $3,499, as demand for Apple's new headset has reportedly been sluggish.
