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Apple Intelligence

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Apple Intelligence

Apple unveiled its suite of AI features back at WWDC24 back in June, dubbed Apple Intelligence. The feature set requires an iPhone 15 Pro or later for iPhone, and an M1 chip or later for iPad and Mac. The great thing about Apple Intelligence is that most of these features run on device, prioritizing privacy.

The features below are currently available in iOS 18.1 beta, which should release to the public in October. Additional features will be coming later.

Writing Tools

One of the top Apple Intelligence features is Writing Tools, allowing you to quickly proofread, rewrite, or change the tone of your writing. It isn’t intended to generate completely new text, and it instead focuses on improving your writing.

This feature is available practically anywhere you’re able to write. Just select some text, and you should see Writing Tools in a context menu.

Apple Intelligence writing tools in iPadOS 18.1

Apple Intelligence Summaries

Apple Intelligence aims to help you out by providing summaries in everyday places, such as Notifications, Mail, and Safari. If you have a stack of notifications from one app, Apple Intelligence will try to summarize all of them into a one liner, that way you can keep up with everything going on with a quick glance, which is particularly helpful in group chats.

In Mail, it’ll also summarize emails from the Mail list view, which is far more useful than just seeing the first two lines of the email. If you tap into the email, you can also see a more detailed summary, still saving you time if you don’t want to read a whole email.

You can also use it to summarize articles in Reader Mode while in Safari.

Apple Intelligence notification summaries

New Focus Mode option

With Apple Intelligence, you can enable a new setting called “Intelligent Breakthrough & Silencing” on any focus mode, which will allow any app to break through your Focus Mode, if Apple Intelligence determines that it might be important.

For example, you might have iMessage notifications disabled from non co-workers while in your Work focus. However, if a family member texts you with something urgent, you should get notified still.

Memory Creation

In the Photos app, you can create a Memory Movie with just a short description. You could write something like “hanging with friends in Los Angeles in June”, and it’ll gather a bunch of photos and create a movie for you, containing all of those memories.

Photos with Apple Intelligence in iOS 18.1

Clean Up

With the new Photos app, you can use Apple Intelligence to clean up your photos. If someone’s in the background and you’d like to remove them, you can simply draw a line around them, and the system will intelligently remove them from the photo and replace the background.

You can also remove random background objects that seem out of place, to make your photo look less cluttered.

Coming later

This is just the beginning of Apple Intelligence, and more features should come later. Later this year, we should get support for ChatGPT within Siri. And next year, the all new Siri should begin rolling out, allowing you to ask Siri more complex questions and actually get proper answers, thanks to Apple Intelligence. The new Siri will also have personal context, and should be able to properly assist you with your day.

Apple’s image generation features, such as Genmoji and Image Playground, are also on the roadmap, but not yet available in beta.

Apple Intelligence ChatGPT iOS 18

Tim Cook says China’s DeepSeek AI is ‘excellent’ during visit to country

Tim Cook says China's DeepSeek AI is 'excellent' during visit to country | DeepSeek seen on an iPhone (left), Tim Cook seen in China (right)

China’s DeepSeek AI chatbot doesn’t exactly have the best of reputations. It has exposed chat history and other sensitive data; the iOS app has been shown to have multiple security flaws; is under investigation in both the US and Europe; and ARM’s CEO believes it will end up being banned in the US.

But none of this has stopped Apple CEO Tim Cook describing it as “excellent” during a visit to Beijing for the China Development Forum …

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AirPods and Apple Watch cameras could make Apple Intelligence much smarter

AirPods and Apple Watch cameras could make Apple Intelligence much smarter | Apple Watch with sunset view

A report earlier this month suggested that Apple is working on embedding cameras into AirPods, followed yesterday by another suggesting the inclusion of Apple Watch cameras too.

Apple has for many years been exploring the idea of adding a camera to the Apple Watch, but the latest report suggests a very specific usage …

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Apple’s recent executive shake-up has me optimistic about the future of Siri

On Thursday, Bloomberg reported that Apple CEO Tim Cook had “lost confidence” in SVP of AI John Giannandrea. In turn, he’ll no longer be in charge of Siri product development, and now Vision Pro head Mike Rockwell will be taking the lead.

While pretty much any news for Siri would be good news at this point, I’m optimistic in Mike Rockwell’s ability to turn Siri around. I’ll explain.

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Apple hit with lawsuit over ‘false advertising’ of Apple Intelligence features

Apple's 5th Ave store glows in Apple Intelligence colors to celebrate iPhone 16 launch

Apple continues to face the fallout from its decision to delay the “more personalized Siri” that it first announced last summer as part of Apple Intelligence. Axios reports that Apple is facing a federal lawsuit alleging that its “promotion of now-delayed Apple Intelligence features constituted false advertising and unfair competition.”

(Featured image: Retail Archive)

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Apple puts Vision Pro creator in charge of Siri as Apple Intelligence rollout falters

Apple is shaking up its executive team in light of ongoing struggles to roll out advanced Apple Intelligence features for Siri. Bloomberg reports that Apple CEO Tim Cook “has lost confidence in the ability of AI head John Giannandrea to execute on product development.”

As such, Mike Rockwell, current vice president of the Vision Products Group and creator of Apple Vision Pro, is taking the reigns of the Siri team.

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Apple has two big aces up its sleeve to rise above AI struggles

One of the biggest narratives currently going around about Apple is the company’s AI struggles. But while those struggles are very real, Apple has two big aces up its sleeve that should minimize the damage from ‘new Siri’ shipping late, and propel the company into a bright future. Those two things: innovations in Apple’s upcoming hardware and software.

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Siri has become an unmitigated disaster, and AI won’t save it

I know, I know. I’m late to the Siri Sucks party. In my defense, Siri’s degree of suck has increased. Siri never used to trip when asked what month it is. Apple’s designers nailed the glow effect though.

It’s not just that Siri has steadily fallen apart over the years. The floor for what’s expected of a system like Siri is quickly rising.

Meanwhile, Siri is waiting for someone to decide if maintenance can feasibly repair the elevator while we all take the stairs to the top of the world’s tallest building.

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Our Apple Intelligence privacy reports are empty – how about yours? [Poll]

Our Apple Intelligence privacy reports are empty – how about yours | iPhone with blank screen

Apple handles AI tasks on-device wherever possible, but where more power is needed it can call on Apple Intelligence servers, aka Private Cloud Compute (PCC).

If you want to see exactly what data has been sent to PCC, you can call up privacy reports on iPhone, iPad, and Mac – but so far everyone at 9to5Mac who’s checked has found theirs empty …

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Apple could mitigate the Siri crisis with one simple move

How much control are you willing to hand over to Apple Intelligence? [Poll]

The Siri crisis is showing no sign of ending, with a blistering attack by a high-profile commenter, and even senior Apple execs admitting that the delayed features are embarrassing.

At this point, there isn’t anything Apple can do to completely recover from the embarrassment, but a report on an internal Siri team meeting did seem to indicate a potential way to at least mitigate the damage …

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Apple exec slams ‘ugly and embarrassing’ Siri delays in all-hands meeting

We’re one week removed from Apple’s decision to indefinitely delay the “more personalized” version of Siri that was first announced at WWDC 2024, and the blowback hasn’t let up.

Now, Bloomberg has the details from an all-hands meeting for the Siri division inside Apple, where the Apple Intelligence delays were panned as “ugly” and “embarrassing.”

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Apple commenter John Gruber launches blistering attack on ‘rotten’ Apple over Siri vaporware

Apple commenter John Gruber launches blistering attack on 'rotten' Apple over Siri vaporware | New Siri logo seen on an iPhone

John Gruber is one of the more high-profile Apple commenters, and generally takes a pretty upbeat view of the company, so it was a big surprise to see him launch a blistering attack on the iPhone maker.

Referring to Apple advertising Siri features which don’t yet exist, he argues that the company is “in disarray if not crisis,” is making “bullshit” claims, and has “squandered” its reputation with “a fiasco” …

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AirPods with cameras would be a good match for the promised contextual Siri

AirPods

According to recent rumors, Apple has been exploring the idea of putting cameras in the AirPods. Although this project probably won’t see the light of day any time soon, I can’t stop imagining how AirPods with cameras would be a good match with the promised contextual Siri – which was recently delayed by Apple.

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Smarter Siri delay could be caused by major security concerns, suggests developer

Smarter Siri delay could be caused by major security concerns, suggests developer | Siri logo on iPhone screen

The long wait for a smarter Siri is to get even longer, with some indications that the new features we were originally expecting in iOS 18.4 may now be pushed back to iOS 19.

Apple hasn’t provided any real explanation, but two theories have so far been put forward, and now a developer and data analyst has suggested that security concerns may be a third reason – and by far the biggest problem …

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What went wrong with Apple Intelligence Siri development?

On Friday, Apple officially delayed the release of its promised iOS 18 Siri features. Those features, including personal context, on-screen awareness, and in-app actions, will now release “in the coming year.” We had already received hints that these features would be delayed, but now we know for sure. This leaves the question, what went wrong?

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Bloomberg: Apple could have to scrap new Siri AI features and start over

Siri iOS 26

Earlier today, Apple announced that it is delaying the launch of the “more personalized” version of Siri, which was first announced at WWDC last year. In a statement, the company said it anticipates rolling the features out “in the coming year.”

In a new report this afternoon, Bloomberg details the internal turmoil that led to this delay, with Apple’s software chief Craig Federighi reportedly voicing “strong concerns that the features didn’t work properly” in his testing.

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