# What is Apple Intelligence, and how will it work on your iPhone?

Date: 2024-06-11 · Author: Robert Scales · https://guidetoartificialintelligence.com/en/learn/what-is-apple-intelligence/

**Answer:** Apple Intelligence is Apple's new set of AI features for iPhone, iPad and Mac, announced at WWDC on June 10, 2024, that can rewrite and summarize text, create images and emoji, and give Siri a better grasp of your personal information and your apps. Most of it runs on the device itself, harder requests go to Apple's own Private Cloud Compute servers, and Siri can also pass questions to ChatGPT, but only after asking you.

Yesterday, Monday, June 10, 2024, Apple opened its yearly Worldwide Developers Conference, **WWDC**, with the announcement many had expected: **Apple Intelligence**, its own system of AI features built into the next versions of its software for iPhone, iPad and Mac. Apple's CEO, Tim Cook, described it as personal intelligence, meaning AI that understands your routine, your relationships and your messages, and is built with privacy from the start.

Apple also confirmed a partnership with OpenAI: later this year, Siri and Apple's writing tools will be able to call on ChatGPT. The new features arrive with iOS 18, iPadOS 18 and macOS Sequoia, in a test version, or beta, this fall.

## What Apple Intelligence can do

The features fall into four groups.

**Writing.** New Writing Tools work almost anywhere you type, in Mail, Notes, Pages and apps from other companies. You can ask for a rewrite in a different tone, a proofread that explains each suggested change, or a summary as a paragraph, key points, a table or a list. Mail adds a Priority Messages section for urgent emails and shows short summaries instead of the first lines of each message. Notifications get the same treatment, and the Notes and Phone apps can record, transcribe and summarize audio; on a call, everyone is told when recording starts.

**Images.** Image Playground creates pictures in seconds in three styles: Animation, Illustration or Sketch. Images are made on the device, so you can make as many as you like. **Genmoji** turns a short description, such as a smiley wearing cucumber slices, into a custom emoji. In Photos, you can search in plain language, remove distracting objects from a picture with Clean Up, and type a description to get a short movie of your memories.

**Siri.** Siri gets a new look, a glowing light around the edge of the screen, and can now be typed to as well as spoken to. It follows along if you stumble over your words and remembers what you just asked. Apple says it will gradually understand what is on your screen and take hundreds of new actions inside and across apps, using your own information. One of Apple's examples:

```prompt
When is Mom's flight landing?
```

To answer, Siri would find the flight details in your email or messages, then check live flight tracking for the arrival time, without you remembering where the details were.

**ChatGPT.** When a question is beyond Siri, it can offer to send it to ChatGPT, including a document or photo if you wish, and show the answer.

## How it works: on the device first, then Apple's cloud

The design rests on a simple order of preference. Apple says many of the AI models behind these features run entirely on the device, using the chips Apple designs, called **Apple silicon**. Your words and photos never leave your phone for those tasks.

Some requests need a bigger model than a phone can hold. For those, Apple built **Private Cloud Compute**: servers, also running on Apple silicon, that handle the request with larger models. Apple says the data is used only for that request and never stored, that independent experts can inspect the software running on these servers, and that your device will refuse to talk to a server whose software has not been publicly listed for inspection.

ChatGPT is a third, separate layer, and it is always opt-in. Here is how a request travels:

| Step | Where it happens | What Apple says about your data |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Simple tasks (most writing help, notifications, Image Playground) | On your device | Stays on the device |
| 2. Harder tasks that need a larger model | Private Cloud Compute | Used for the request, not stored, open to outside inspection |
| 3. Broad world knowledge, only if you agree each time | ChatGPT (GPT-4o) | IP address hidden; OpenAI does not store the request unless you connect your own account |

OpenAI says ChatGPT inside Apple's software will be free without an account, and paying ChatGPT subscribers can connect theirs to use paid features. TechCrunch reports that Apple plans to support other outside AI models later, without naming them.

> **Try it:** Take an email or message you sent recently and rewrite it three ways with any AI assistant: friendlier, more concise, more formal. Compare the versions. This is the kind of rewriting Writing Tools will offer with one tap, so you'll know what to expect from it.

## Why it matters

Apple's move into generative AI has been long awaited, and its approach differs from that of OpenAI, Google and Microsoft. Rather than one chatbot, it spreads small, practical features through apps people already use, and it makes privacy the main selling point. TechCrunch calls the Siri changes likely the biggest update since the assistant launched more than a decade ago, and notes that letting people type to Siri admits that voice is not always the best way to talk to a computer.

It also sets a hardware line. Apple Intelligence needs recent chips, which echoes Microsoft's push last month for laptops with dedicated AI processors. And the partnership puts ChatGPT in front of a very large audience, while Apple keeps the decision of when to use it in the user's hands.

Many questions will only be answered once people can use it: how good the on-device models are, how often requests go to the cloud, and how well Siri handles real, messy requests.

## Will your iPhone, iPad or Mac get Apple Intelligence, and when?

Apple Intelligence is free, but it needs recent hardware. On phones, only the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max qualify; TechCrunch notes that the standard iPhone 15 is left out. iPads and Macs need an M1 chip or later. Your device and Siri must also be set to US English at first.

It arrives in beta this fall with the new iPhone, iPad and Mac software, and Apple says more features, languages and platforms will follow over the next year. The ChatGPT integration is planned for later this year. If you are thinking about a new phone partly for these features, it makes sense to wait for the fall release and early reviews before deciding.

## Sources

- Introducing Apple Intelligence, the personal intelligence system that puts powerful generative models at the core of iPhone, iPad, and Mac: https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2024/06/introducing-apple-intelligence-for-iphone-ipad-and-mac/
- OpenAI and Apple announce partnership to integrate ChatGPT into Apple experiences: https://openai.com/index/openai-and-apple-announce-partnership/
- Apple Intelligence is the company's new generative AI offering: https://techcrunch.com/2024/06/10/apple-intelligence-is-the-companys-new-generative-ai-offering/