AI: The Apple Way
Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) happened on June 10 and it honestly started slow. They opened with new a new arsenal of Apple TV+ TV shows and movies, and then VisionOS 2, which was an underwhelming update given the name’s implication of a much more major one. Then iOS 18, which also felt underwhelming given the rumors swirling around before WWDC, leaving us with not much more than more customization and a few more messaging features. iPadOS and WatchOS passed without anything of note except a very strong calculator app finally coming to iPad. MacOS Sequoia has a new way to control your iPhone remotely. And that was it until Apple Intelligence stole the show.
Apple Intelligence, or AI (I see what you did there, Apple), is the new way AI is being incorporated into Apple’s ecosystem of products. It mostly consists of generative imaging, writing tools, and a ChatGPT-enhanced Siri. And Apple has made it their way. They brought up all the ways that this AI will be on-device for our privacy, and when it can’t be on-device, it will be part of a network where the only information allowed to be used to answer your question or help with your task is the information your Apple device thinks that network needs to complete the request. Even when Siri draws upon ChatGPT to get a better answer, Apple obscures your IP address and hides all other information other than your question. However, other than Siri and the useful AI writing tools, I think most of the new “Apple Intelligence” is not helpful or just weird. For example, I cannot think of one time that I would unironically send an AI-generated picture or drawing to anyone. Ever. The “genmoji” is a little more useful, letting you create a custom emoji in the style of the other Apple emojis, but again, I don’t anticipate ever using this feature. That is, if I could use it. Apple claims that only its own Apple chips are capable enough for Apple Intelligence, so these new AI features are limited to the iPhone 15 Pro/Pro Maxes and all M1-M4 iPads and Macs. I’m not going to sit here and say no one else uses features to promote the purchasing of a newer model, but I certainly feel like Apple is the king of this. They are always working you up on their ladder that climbs higher and higher into absurd prices, and now locking AI behind their newest models is just another way to promote the purchase of the new iPhone 16 lineup that is coming out in September. As a user of the iPhone 13, I’m pretty sad that my phone won’t be able to get these new features, but I won’t get super upset since I was just saying that I don’t think these new features are all that great.
Anway, let me know if you have topics you’d like me to discuss or questions in general. You can reach me at techtabloidblog@gmail.com.