What Is Apple Intelligence?

Apple GPT, the long-rumored AI chatbot from Apple that one day may arrive on all Apple devices, has taken shape in the form of Apple Intelligence, the company's confirmed AI model.

With Apple Intelligence, AI features across all apps, including bringing ChatGPT to Siri's aid, defining the core user experience on iPhones, iPads, and Macs. This article looks at some previous Apple Intelligence speculation and what you can look forward to when it appears on your devices.

History of Apple Intelligence

Apple devices and features like Siri, Apple Maps, search, and even the mixed-reality headset Vision Pro have benefitted from the gradual introduction of machine learning and artificial intelligence. But Apple never had a chatbot that could be a front-facing tool for its users. The fresh development comes from OpenAI's ChatGPT, which opened the floodgates for numerous generative AI apps like Bing Chat and Google Gemini.

Apple is famous for creating hype around its announcements and then using it to build anticipation. While it stayed away from the commotion around ChatGPT, reports emerged of AI development increasing in pace.

Bloomberg revealed that the Cupertino-based behemoth is developing a generative AI chatbot called "Apple GPT" (for want of a better name), but it's still undecided on how to release it to the public.

Apple itself was less forthcoming on its specifics until WWDC 2024, when the company announced Apple Intelligence and its partnership with OpenAI, which will bring ChatGPT to every device. Users with compatible devices will see many of these enhancements upon the beta release of iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia.

How Will Apple Intelligence Work?

Previously, Apple GPT existed only as an internal generative AI chatbot for Apple engineers. The Bloomberg report said the chatbot works like Gemini, ChatGPT, and Bing AI. It was trained on its large language model as engineers prototyped features and used it to summarize text and answer questions in their everyday workflow.

Apple’s AI framework, Ajax, is built on top of Google Jax, the search giant’s machine learning framework. Apple uses Ajax to create its proprietary Large Language Model (LLM) running on Google Cloud, like its iCloud service. LLMs are the engines that enable generative artificial intelligence chatbots to converse like humans and create new content, such as text, images, or music.

What that means on the user side is that Apple Intelligence packs all of that learning into every app on iPhones, iPads, and Macs. Most significantly, users will get highly personalized answers to various requests based on the personal data Apple Intelligence can access on your Apple devices.

What Will Apple Intelligence be Used For?

Tim Cook had previously said that the company would continue to add AI capabilities to its devices while sticking to a caution-first approach. Apple doubled down on that commitment at the WWDC 2024 event, emphasizing that Apple Intelligence will access but won't collect users' personal data.

Here are a few noteworthy ways Apple Intelligence will be baked into Apple devices:

• Writing Tools: This collection of tools simplifies all writing tasks, from proofing and providing revisions and rewrites to summarizing long blocks of text in emails and basically any other app you can write in.
• Smarter notifications: Apple Intelligence can sort the notifications that mean the most to you and put them at the top of the stack, and call only the most important notifications to your attention to reduce distractions.
• Smartest Siri ever: As anticipated, Siri is capable of understanding speech in a more natural way, including when users stumble over words. She also provides how-to device guidance across Apple devices and understands user-specific requests like bringing up a particular article or address mentioned in a conversation.
• ChatGPT integration with Siri: Siri also gets a boost from ChatGPT by asking it for a helping hand to complete requests. And users will be asked for permission before Siri calls on ChatGPT.
• Image generation: Image Playground appears across apps and allows users to create personalized, relevant-to-the-conversation images in Messages, turn sketches into images to place in Notes, or make Genmoji of friends and family.

Apple's AI strategy has been in play for several years across its devices, and Apple Intelligence looks poised to seamlessly slip into present and future projects and become a part of every Apple consumer's life.