Apple has announced the rollout of Apple Intelligence, a new personal intelligence system integrated into iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia.
This system, unveiled at WWDC 2024 in June, leverages Apple Silicon to enhance language and image processing, streamline app interactions, and personalize user experiences while ensuring privacy and security.
Key Features
Writing Tools: Users can refine text by rewriting, proofreading, and summarizing in apps like Mail, Notes, Pages, and third-party applications.
Photos: The Memories feature lets users create movies by typing descriptions. Enhanced search capabilities allow for finding specific moments in videos, and the Clean Up tool removes background distractions without affecting the main subject.
Notes and Phone Apps: Users can record, transcribe, and summarize audio. Call recordings automatically notify participants, and summaries help recall key points.
Notifications and Focus: Summarized notifications and the new Focus mode reduce interruptions by showing only urgent messages. Mail’s Priority Messages feature highlights important emails, and Smart Reply offers quick response suggestions.
Siri: Siri features a new design with a glowing light on iPhone, iPad, and CarPlay. On Mac, Siri can be placed anywhere on the desktop. Users can interact with Siri via text or voice, and it now offers improved language understanding and extensive device knowledge.
Upcoming Features
Additional features of Apple Intelligence, set to roll out later, include:
- Image Playground: Create playful images instantly, and use Image Wand to enhance sketches with contextual images.
- Genmoji: Generate custom emojis by typing descriptions or using photos.
- Enhanced Siri: Improved contextual awareness and the ability to perform more actions in apps, with expanded personal context and on-screen awareness.
- ChatGPT Integration: Access ChatGPT’s knowledge within iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia for a broad range of tasks without switching tools.
Privacy and Security
Apple has highlighted that Apple Intelligence prioritizes user privacy throughout its operation. A key feature of Apple Intelligence is its on-device processing, with many models functioning entirely on the device itself.
To handle more complex tasks requiring additional processing power, Private Cloud Compute extends Apple device privacy into the cloud. This development represents a major advancement in server-based intelligence.
Data Security: With Private Cloud Compute, user data is not stored or shared with Apple; it is used solely to complete the user’s request. The code on Apple Silicon servers is regularly reviewed by independent experts to ensure privacy.
ChatGPT Integration: Users accessing ChatGPT through Siri or Writing Tools benefit from privacy protections. IP addresses are concealed, and OpenAI does not store user requests.
ChatGPT Access: Users can use ChatGPT for free without needing an account. For those who opt to link an account, ChatGPT’s data-use policies will apply.
Availability
Apple Intelligence will be available as a free update starting with iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1 in beta.
- Additional features will be rolled out in the months following the initial release.
- It will be compatible with the iPhone 16 series, iPhone 15 Pro series, and iPad and Mac models with M1 and later.
The initial rollout is in U.S. English, with more languages and regions, including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, and the U.K., planned for December, and additional languages like Chinese, French, Japanese, and Spanish to follow next year.