Apple announces new era of AI with Apple Intelligence
At WWDC 2024, Apple announced a new era of AI and Siri, with the unveiling of Apple Intelligence.
Apple has been gearing up for a major AI-related announcement at WWDC on Monday, which has finally been delivered. The tech giant announced Apple Intelligence, its new deeply-integrated foray into generative AI.
The company announced the development and integration of the new AI offering, also underscoring how privacy and safety sits at the core of its new functions. Apple Intelligence will be "grounded in your personal context", CEO Tim Cook remarked at the event, adding, "It’s personal intelligence, and it’s the next big step for Apple."
Apple Intelligence will be available across Apple products.
What capabilities does Apple Intelligence have?
Apple Intelligence is bringing tons of new AI features through its system, which they say will enhance Siri and existing tools on Apple products. With Apple Intelligence's LLM model, an Apple user's "personal context" will be understood, applying to language, images, and action taken on products like the iPhone or iPad. Some major capabilities announced include:
Notifications based on context
Writing tools and enhancements
Image generation with "Genmoji"
Updates to Siri's AI abilities
These new features include AI-generated images called "Genmoji" in Messages and apps, brand-new writing tools, an enhanced way to view your email, and the ability to "orchestrate" actions more seamlessly with the use of commands. Apple employees describe these tools as "truly helpful intelligence."
When it comes to writing, for example, a new "Rewrite" feature can suggest edits for you work, while "Proofread" will look out for grammar. Rewrite will also adjust your writing based on tone, and you can ask how you'd like something to be written, even commanding writing tools to help put together a poem.
Other aspects, such as Mail, will be uplifted to include summaries for emails, and will read through your inbox to see what emails are a priority, like a boarding pass for a flight on the same day.
Apple also announced "a new era" for Siri; the company said that's this feature will have awareness of "personal context", and be able to peruse and bring up more detailed and concise information. Siri will be able to take action across apps, schedule messages, and will also hold "on-screen awareness" so information is up-to-date.
How does privacy work?
As much as the words "personal context" were repeated during the unveiling of Apple Intelligence, so were the mentions of privacy. The company said that this new generative AI system is rooted in safety, and marks "a brand new standard for privacy and AI".
Apple Intelligence will run on "private cloud compute," so that your data is never stored or made public to Apple.
This story is developing and will be updated...