The WWDC 2024 just wrapped up! Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference took place this Monday and the company had a lot of news to share. As we witness the fast adoption of AI in the tech space, it should come as no surprise that Apple’s debut of artificial intelligence, called Apple Intelligence, was a big topic. A big Siri update with an AI boost and ChatGPT integration was also amongst the news. We can expect to see these updates in Beta come Spring this year (in the Southern Hemisphere) and this is what you can expect!
Apple Intelligence
Apple Intelligence is Apple’s very own AI system that puts powerful generative models at the core of your iPhone, iPad and Mac. Understanding personal context and language will play a big part in helping to simplify your life as well as interactions across apps. For example, say you’re wondering whether a rescheduled meeting will affect whether you can make it to your daughters' play in time. AI will allow your device to understand who your daughter is, the play details she emailed you days ago, time and location of the play, and the predicted traffic.
Apple also placed an emphasis on privacy, assuring that it is deeply integrated. Apple Intelligence remains aware of personal data, without collecting it. Most of the AI models run on-device (where it is typically considered to be more private), and if certain requests can’t be processed on-device, it uses Private Cloud Compute and sends only data relevant to the request. This data is never stored or made accessible to Apple, and only used exclusively to fulfill requests.
Upgrades to Siri
Apple Intelligence will be maximised with Siri. The voice assistant is becoming smarter, more capable and more personal. With better conversational context, you can speak to Siri in a more natural way and she’ll be able to understand you. This means you can also ask follow up questions without having to re-prompt her. Additionally, on-screen awareness enables her to take actions based on what’s on your phone screen. For example, your friend texts you an address, simply ask her to save it to a contact card.
Other handy actions Siri will help with include searching your device for relevant data. For example, to bring up a specific memory you could say, “Show me photos of Alex in New York with a pink coat on”. Or perhaps you need help finding something you can’t remember - was it in a text, email or a note? Simply ask Siri to find it for you. Siri will also be able to take action across apps, such as pulling up photos from an email and putting them into notes with a description.
Writing, Productivity and Photo Tools
Apple Intelligence also comes with several new features to boost productivity. It can help you re-write text in different styles, proofread for grammar and sentence structure, summarise key points of emails or notes into a TLDR, and more. These writing tools will be available in iPhone, iPad and Mac, and work across a wide range of apps.
Other features designed to help keep productivity in check include the creation of email summaries for your inbox (rather than the first line), priority notifications and summaries, a feature to reduce interruptions, audio transcriptions, and smart reply. A host of AI photo features are also on their way including Genmoji, Image Playground, Image Wand and several photo editing features.
ChatGPT Integration
Apple is also partnering with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT into writing tools and Siri. This will allow you to tap into ChatGPT’s expertise when needed to answer a specific question, without jumping between tools. Siri can tap into ChatGPT for certain requests, and with Compose in Writing tools, you can create and illustrate content from scratch. Before using ChatGPT, you will be asked for permission first. You’ll be able to use it for free and without an account.
Get a quick overview of more highlights from the WWDC 2024 below!
