While brands like Samsung and Google are fully committed to AI, Apple is still quiet at the moment. But not for long, as the company seems to have big plans for Siri on your iPhone.
Dedicated AI gadgets are failing hopelessly, so the future of AI really seems to lie with the smartphone after all. Yet Apple remains quiet for a long time regarding its plans for the iPhone. That is likely to change considerably during WWDC 24, and there are even already rumors that the company will give a sneak peek during Let Loose.
During WWDC 24, Apple will announce the new operating systems for its devices. There’s no doubt that AI will play a big role in that. But what exactly can we expect with iOS 18 for the iPhone and what should we wait longer for? Apple has already shown with special papers what it is exploring.
Apple brings AI to iPhone
Anyone who says AI immediately thinks of OpenAI or Google. No one makes the connection to Apple’s iPhone yet, but that’s really going to change soon. And it has to, because Siri is hopelessly behind.
Siri’s lag behind Google Assistant has been growing by the year. Apple mostly let the digital assistant on the iPhone swim and hardly did anything about it. With AI trending, it now has to and we can expect quite a bit, according to The Verge.
The great metamorphosis of Siri
Siri on your iPhone may start working differently than you’re used to. Instead of having to say “Hey Siri” first, the AI may respond when you say something else. The bottom line is that your iPhone will soon have to understand when you say something to the device rather than to a person.
In addition, conversations with Siri should also improve. Because of the special STEER (Semantic Turn Extension-Expansion Recognition) system, it will recognize follow-up questions much easier. It will recognize ambiguous questions better, to figure out exactly what you mean by your previous questions. Should Siri still not know, the digital assistant should ask proactive questions of you.
More than just Siri
AI is much more than just a chatbot like ChatGPT. Google is already proving this with its photo features for Android devices. For example, with a tap on the screen it is possible to remove reflections and you can easily remove objects that interfere with your photo. For group photos, on the other hand, you have the option of changing faces so that everyone looks perfect in the photo.
Thus, Apple has already released a paper on how it sees photo editing. You can compare that to the way Adobe does it with Photoshop. You should soon be able to edit your photo through prompts. You then give commands like: “make the sky bluer” or “remove this object from the background.
Where Apple can really make a difference is in the area of health. The Health app on your iPhone displays an awful lot of information, but it can sometimes be hard to see the forest for the trees. After all, what exactly do all those numbers say and what can you do with them?
One of the things we can think about, for example, is creating an optimal eating and training schedule that fits your data and goals. Google is already working on the same thing for Android right now to use the data from your Google Watch/Fitbit and then have Google Assistant give you optimal advice.
Apple takes a completely different approach to iPhone than Android
However, Apple wants to do things a little differently than the Android brands. Whereas those mainly rely on a server and Internet connection for AI, Apple wants your device to be able to perform AI tasks on its own. The big advantage is that this will be faster and you can also work offline.
This requires quite a bit of processing power, so Apple has to get creative to make it run on older iPhones as well. For this, Apple is looking at RAM memory. This would allow tasks to be performed 4 to 5 times faster than with regular loading methods such as the CPU. In addition, it is also looking into how to make files as small as possible, as this in turn is faster and more energy efficient. So it is a matter of finding the right balance between speed and power.
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AI on iPhone dependent on OpenAI and Google
Still, it remains to be seen whether this is already the case with iOS 18. Apple, according to an earlier report, would not yet be ready to launch its own AI under development. So it is looking at a partner to still be able to bring AI to the next iOS release.
Apple is in talks with both OpenAI and Google for this purpose. So at first you may only have features you know from Android. Still, Apple’s future goal does seem clear: AI on your iPhone itself instead of via the cloud.