Earlier this month, Apple held their Worldwide Developers Conference and amongst the news of new features and an updated Operating System, came news of “Apple Intelligence”.
Conveniently (for Apple) using the abbreviation of “AI”, Apple Intelligence will provide the latest in personal intelligence for iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
It will come with the next Operating system – iOS 18 – and we are promised functionality which not only draws on the newest technologies, but also combines these with personal context to deliver intelligence that’s especially tailored for the individual.
Powered by Apple Intelligence, the Personal Assistant Siri becomes more natural, more contextually relevant, and more personal, with the ability to simplify and accelerate everyday tasks.
Due to the link-up between Apple and ChatGPT, Siri can now tap into ChatGPT’s expertise when helpful. Users are asked before any questions are sent to ChatGPT, along with any documents or photos, and Siri then presents the answer directly.
Some examples of Apple Intelligence’s functionality include:
- Writing tools to enhance communication. Users can rewrite, proofread, and summarise text nearly everywhere they write, including Mail, Notes, Pages, and third-party apps – adjusting the tone to suit the audience and task at hand.
- Priority Messages help you stay on top of emails. A new section at the top of the inbox shows the most urgent emails, such as messages relating to today’s calendar events.
- Across a user’s inbox, instead of previewing the first few lines of each email, they can see summaries without needing to open a message.
- Smart Reply provides suggestions for a quick response, and will identify questions in an email to ensure everything is answered.
- Priority Notifications appear at the top of the stack to surface what’s most important, and summaries help users scan long or stacked notifications to show key details such as when a group chat is particularly active.
- Reduce Interruptions is a new Focus that surfaces only the notifications that might need immediate attention, such as a text about an urgent appointment.
- In the Notes and Phone apps, users can now record, transcribe, and summarise audio. When a recording is initiated while on a call, participants are automatically notified, and once the call ends, Apple Intelligence generates a summary to help recall key points.
- New features in Photos will make searching for photos and videos more convenient you can specify something like “Team building day when we wore blue T shirts”.
- The new Clean-Up tool can identify and remove distracting objects in the background of a photo — without accidentally altering the subject.
Apple has said that the new Intelligence features will be rolled out over several months, to avoid the pitfalls that have plagued other AI systems. New features will come with each iOS18 update.