WWDC 2024 will see Apple reveal generative AI features, and while Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman noted last week that reveals aren’t likely to be on the same level as those from OpenAI or Google, it appears Apple will shift its focus somewhat.
In this week’s issue of his Power On newsletter, Gurman notes that Apple will bring a series of new improvements aimed at making users’ lives simpler using AI.
Aside from OpenAI providing the chatbot (though discussions continue with Google to license Gemini), Apple’s “Project Greymatter” is a “set of AI tools that the company will integrate into core apps like Safari, Photos and Notes” Gurman says, as well as tying into “operating system features such as enhanced notifications”.
These new features will be processed on-device for as much as possible, helping lean into Apple’s privacy-first mindset, while more complex tasks will be passed to the Cloud – powered by M2 Ultra chips in data centers.
Apple’s AI features revealed?
As for what those features will include, Gurman has a list, saying they’ll be spread across iOS 18 and macOS 15, with “Most of the on-device features will be supported by iPhone, iPad and Mac chips released in the last year or so”.
Given the recent iPad Pro with M4’s focus on AI, it seems likely the iPad will get AI features, but Gurman didn’t mention iPadOS for this year which is curious.
This year, Apple users can reportedly expect voice memo transcription, AI photo retouching, and faster, more reliable searches in Spotlight.
Safari web search will see improvements, and suggested replies will arrive for email and text messages, alongside the Siri upgrade we’ve all been waiting for.
Apple’s voice assistant will have “more natural-sounding interactions based on Apple’s own large language models”, with more advanced Siri on the Apple Watch.
Developers that use XCode will gain AI tools, and generative AI will help users create custom emojis on the fly, as well as the summarisation of web pages, news articles, documents and more that we heard about before.
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