Apple Intelligence is official: Coming this summer to iPhone, iPad, and Mac

While Google was the first company to embrace AI on its mobile devices, Samsung and many others quickly followed suit. This led to increasing rumors that Apple would introduce its own take on AI at WWDC 2024. Right on schedule, Apple Intelligence has now been fully unveiled during the company’s big keynote.

Apple’s approach to AI focuses on automation and simplifying tasks by integrating the technology into its UI and the majority of its apps, enabling users to work smarter, not harder.

Siri gets a big upgrade thanks to Apple Intelligence

As expected, Apple Intelligence will enhance Siri, transforming it into one of the primary interfaces for interaction. With the upgraded Siri, you’ll be able to execute commands across hundreds of apps, including third-party ones. You’ll also have the capability to cross-reference multiple apps within a single request. For instance, you can instruct Siri to play a video file you’ve just received in a message using a specific video app.

The revamped Siri will also exhibit enhanced contextual awareness. This means it will better understand your commands, even if you mumble or speak unclearly. Additionally, Siri will now be able to maintain context from one request to another, making interactions more seamless and intuitive.

You can learn more about the new Siri upgrade in our breakdown.

The power of GPT under the hood

Thanks to its partnership with OpenAI, Apple will utilize GPT-4O to power its cloud-based Apple Intelligence queries, though not without Apple’s own customizations thrown on top. With your permission, Siri can tap even further into the power of ChatGPT’s knowledge base when necessary, such as in situations Apple’s direct tools wouldn’t be as good of a fit like building meal plans around specific ingredients and more. You can learn more about these features in our guide to the new Siri ChatGPT upgrade.

Summarization, writing help, and much more

Summarization is another area where Apple Intelligence is set to excel. Notifications in iOS can be quite messy, and Apple Intelligence aims to simplify how you understand what’s going on. It’s not the solution we wanted, but I guess it’s better than nothing? Priority Notifications will appear at the top of the stack, complete with quick summaries that allow users to easily scan long or stacked notifications right from the Lock Screen. Additionally, Apple Intelligence is introducing a feature called Reduce Interruptions, a mode you can activate to ensure that only notifications requiring urgent attention are shown.

Beyond summarizing and organizing notifications, you’ll also be able to receive summaries for meetings, text messages, emails, and other types of documents, including those you write yourself. Safari will benefit too, as Apple Intelligence will be able to summarize articles and web pages within the browser. This could be particularly useful for those with short attention spans (like myself), or for skim readers (also like myself).

System-wide Writing Tools are also built into iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and MacOS Sequoia, allowing users to rewrite and proofread text almost anywhere they write, including in Mail, Notes, Pages, and beyond. The Rewrite feature offers a few different versions to choose from, adjusting the tone to better suit the task at hand. As for proofreading, it checks grammar, word choice, structure, and can suggest edits while providing explanations for the recommendations.

Photos get a few AI features

While Apple may not focus on camera-related AI features like Google or Samsung, it is introducing new features into Photos that make it easier to find images using AI search. There’s also the ability to create Memories. You simply give Apple Intelligence a description of what kind of memories you are looking for, and it will pick the best ones. From there you can craft a storyline with chapters based on themes identified from the photos. The idea is basically it would catalog your life experiences into AI-generated stories. I really like this idea in theory, though we’ll see how well it actually works.

Get creative with Image Playground

Apple Intelligence enable users to create original AI-generated images with the new Image Playground tool, which comes in three different styles: sketch, animation, or illustration. Image Playground also lets you create images from a range of categories and themes, costumes, accessories, and more. There’s even a feature that lets you create your own Genmojis. If you didn’t figure it out from name alone, these are Apple’s new AI-generated emojis.

While you can use Image Playground directly within apps like Messages, it also has its own dedicated app if you prefer.

Privacy is key here, as you’d expect

Apple has been extremely critical of using AI via cloud servers due to potential privacy pitfalls, so it’s no surprise that Apple is emphasizing security. A cornerstone of Apple Intelligence is on-device processing for as many operations as possible, although it does utilize the cloud for processing complex requests that require more hardware power.

Apple’s solution to this is Private Cloud Compute. Apple states, “With Private Cloud Compute, Apple Intelligence can flex and scale its computational capacity and draw on larger, server-based models for more complex requests.” These models run on servers powered entirely by Apple silicon and are reportedly built with security and privacy as top priorities.

Apple even says independent experts will be able to inspect the code that runs on Apple silicon servers to verify privacy. Furthermore, an iPhone, iPad, or Mac will not communicate with the server unless its software has been publicly logged for inspection.

What devices support Apple Intelligence and when?

Being eligible to upgrade to iOS 18 does not guarantee that you’ll receive Apple Intelligence features, as these require a certain level of processing power. In fact, only the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max will support it! Additionally, select Mac and iPad devices equipped with an Apple M1 chip or newer and eligible for upgrades to MacOS Sequoia or iPadOS 1 will also support Apple Intelligence.

As for when Apple Intelligence will roll out? Apple Intelligence will arrive in the latest Mac, iPad, and iPhone betas this fall, though only in English initially. New features and languages will slowly roll out in the following months after that.