Apple’s CEO Tim Cook has revealed on an earnings call that generative AI features will make their way to customers later this year. That wasn’t very specific considering the variety of devices and apps that Apple offers. Nonetheless, the most exciting prospect of this would be generative AI built into iPhones.
iPhone users already have access to ChatGPT and other generative AI products by simply installing their respective apps. However, Apple’s integration style for features suggests that their generative AI implementation could be especially convenient.
Possible reasons and benefits:
- The ability to process requests in the background.
- Siri integration, which will be especially helpful when your hands are tied and you need to look something up while cooking or driving.
- The ability to access or continue where you left off on any Apple device — including your Apple Watch, Mac, iPhone, iPad, or TV. This is a great way to enhance your workflow.
- Deeper integration into operating system features that third-party apps may not be able (or allowed) to offer.
- On-device processing: This can result in snappy performance for users with slow Internet connections.
- Free of charge: If such a feature operates offline and uses only your device’s resources — Apple may offer it free of charge.
The new generative AI feature may be available in iOS 18. However, that has not yet been confirmed.
