While the rest of the tech world rushes to add as many AI features as possible to every product and service imaginable, Apple has remained silent. In the 18 months since OpenAI's game-changing launch of ChatGPT, Apple has yet to launch any substantive AI capabilities on iPhone, iPad, or Mac, although Microsoft, Google, and Meta don't appear to be focusing on anything else.
But if the rumors are true, that will change this year, with Apple expected to release new AI features for iOS 18 and macOS 15 at WWDC in June. People have been buzzing about the multi-trillion-dollar company's artificial intelligence plans for months, and the hints kept coming. According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, who has a strong track record of reporting on Apple rumors, the company is planning an AI approach that's not as flashy as some rival efforts. Instead, Apple will introduce AI features that integrate with apps that iPhone and Mac users are already familiar with and use, such as Photos, Notes, and Safari. The initiative is called Project Gray Matter. AppleInsider also confirmed this and reported some additional AI features.
As an AI skeptic, I like this plan. It allows Apple to enter the AI space while delivering AI features that people are likely to actually use, rather than wasting resources on "revolutionary" AI features that most users will ignore once the novelty wears off.
How Apple plans to enhance its artificial intelligence capabilities
Whatever Apple ends up announcing this year, its AI capabilities will need to be powered by... something. Your iPhone or Mac may already be equipped with an NPU (neural processing unit), which is a piece of hardware designed specifically to run AI tasks. (Apple does already have some AI features, including Live Text, which uses the NPU for processing.) The company has touted the NPU in the M4 chip in the new iPad Pro, which was added to the new iPad line . Macs will likely power many of Apple's upcoming artificial intelligence features.
iPad Pro 11-inch (M4) M4 iPad Pro has Apple’s most powerful NPU to date.
However, not all features are suitable for on-device processing, especially with older iPhones and Macs. Gurman predicts that most of Apple's features will be able to run natively on devices built in the last year or so. If your iPhone, iPad, or Mac is new, the hardware should keep up. However, for older devices or any particularly power-hungry functions, Apple plans to outsource processing power to the cloud.
Apple has reportedly been in talks with OpenAI and Google to lease the companies' cloud-based artificial intelligence processing to run some of its new features, but it's unclear if (or when) those deals will come to fruition. Gurman said Apple plans to use the M2 Ultra chip to run some cloud-based functions from server farms. If Apple could handle cloud processing on its own, I believe it would be better than signing a deal with a competitor. We'll likely see how Apple's ambitious AI plans come to fruition at WWDC.
Speaking of plans, Apple is rumored to be announcing the following AI features in June:
Generate AI emoticons
Emoji are an important part of any iOS or macOS update (we may already see some new emoji coming to future versions of iOS 18 and macOS 15). However, Gurman said Apple is working on a feature that will generate artificial intelligence to create unique emojis based on what you're currently typing. This does sound interesting and useful if done well. While there are already plenty of emojis to choose from, if nothing fits your specific mood, icons created based on things you're actively talking about with your friends might be a better choice. On Android, users have been using "Emoji Kitchen," which lets you combine certain emojis to create something entirely new, for a few years now. Apple seems poised to iterate effectively on this idea.
AppleInsider says that based on this idea, Apple is developing something called a "Generative Playground" that allows users to create and edit AI-generated images. Maybe emojis are just part of the experience.
Siri, powered by artificial intelligence
I don't know about you, but I've never been too excited about Siri. The smart assistant frequently failed to fulfill my requests, either because it misunderstood my query or ignored me entirely. For some reason, it's especially bad on macOS, so much so that I never bothered to try Siri on my MacBook. If Apple could enhance Siri with artificial intelligence, or at least make it reliable , that sounds great to me.
Earlier this month, we learned about the possibility of Apple integrating artificial intelligence with Siri, based on information leaked to the New York Times by an unnamed source. Gurman's recent report suggests that Apple is planning to make interactions with Siri "more natural-sounding," and while the company may outsource that work to Google or OpenAI, Gurman said the company wants to use its own In-house Large Language Models (LL.M.). The Apple Watch may even be developing a dedicated AI Siri.
That doesn't mean Apple is turning Siri into a chatbot, at least not according to Gurman. He reported that Apple hopes to find a partner that can provide a chatbot for the company's platform in time for WWDC, without Apple having to build one itself. . For now, the company seems to have sided with OpenAI over Google, so we might see ChatGPT on the iPhone this year.
According to AppleInsider, Apple also plans to make other artificial intelligence changes to Siri, including the ability to let Siri on one device control media playback on another device. (For example, ask Siri on iPhone to pause a show on Apple TV.)
Smart search in Safari
Earlier this month, we learned that Apple had at least one AI feature planned for Safari: Smart Search. The feature can reportedly scan any given web page and highlight keywords and phrases in order to build a generated AI summary of the site. While Gurman said Apple is improving Safari web search, we don't yet know much about how Smart Search will work.
Artificial Intelligence in Spotlight Search
Speaking of better search, Apple may use artificial intelligence to make on-device search in Spotlight more useful. This feature always gives me mixed results, so I'm hoping that the generative AI will not only speed up my searches, but also return more relevant results.
AI-powered accessibility features
Apple recently announced that it would be rolling out some new accessibility features "later this year," which are almost certainly codenames for "launching in iOS 18 and macOS 15." While not all of these features are powered by artificial intelligence, at least two look very interesting. First, Apple is using artificial intelligence to let users control their iPhones and iPads using just their eyes, without the need for external hardware. There's also Hear Atypical Speech, which uses on-device artificial intelligence to learn and recognize your specific speech patterns.
Automatically reply to messages
Starting last year, iOS and macOS offer word and phrase suggestions as you type to help you complete sentences faster. (This feature is not to be confused with the three predictive text options that have been available in Messages for years.) In iOS 18 and macOS 15, Apple may also introduce automatic replies. This means that when you receive an email or text message, the app may suggest a full reply based on the content of your reply. Soon, we may all be communicating at the click of a button. (Well, do I want to click on the "Sounds good: I'll see you there" or the "Sorry, I can't. Raincheck!" reply)
Notes gets an AI makeover
AppleInsider's sources say AI will revolutionize Notes: In iOS 18 and macOS 15, you'll be able to record audio directly in Notes, and AI will transcribe that recording. Apple already transcribes voice messages sent in the Messages app (quite quickly, in my experience), so it only makes sense to leverage AI to transcribe recordings in Notes. Gurman suggested that Voice Memos will also get this transcription feature.
Additionally, AppleInsider says the Notes app will also get a feature called Math Notes, which can recognize mathematical symbols and answer math-related questions. As you write out equations, Keyboard Math Prediction can suggest ways to automatically complete symbols. I don't have much use for complex math these days, but I imagine these changes might make the note-taking app popular with students.
Smart review
Gurman said a big focus for Apple is "intelligent review," or artificial intelligence-generated summaries of information you might miss when you're not looking at your iPhone, iPad, or Mac, including notifications, messages, web pages, and articles. , notes, etc. iOS already has a notification summary feature, but these smart overviews sound more sophisticated.
AppleInsider supports this claim and actually even came up with a working title: Greymatter Catch Up. You can also get these AI-generated summaries from Siri, the outlet reported.
photo retouching
AppleInsider also confirmed another leak from Gurman: artificial intelligence is coming to the Photos app. While Gurman only said Apple plans to use its AI tools for "photo retouching," AppleInsider says the feature will allow you to select objects to remove from photos, similar to other AI photo editing tools on the market now.
It's unclear whether more AI-powered editing tools are in the pipeline, though. The company has built an AI image editor that can accept natural language prompts to perform edits; it may incorporate some of these features into an AI photo "enhancer" in the Photos app on iOS and macOS.
