Apple gets Intelligence.
Apple released its Intelligence capability for certain iPhones, IPads, and Macs. In this blog we’ll focus on iPhones. Accessing Apple Intelligence requires two newer products – the phone and the operating system. You must first get a newer Apple iPhone – iPhone Version 15 Pro or Pro Max, or any type of iPhone 16, the phone must have at least 4 GB of free storage. You’ll also need the latest operating system release – iOS18.1. The new operating systems adds “Apple Intelligence and Siri” to the Settings list. Go to Settings, click “Apple Intelligence and Siri”, then click “Join the Apple Intelligence Waitlist”. Activation usually occurs within a few hours. Once activated, the iPhone user will be prompted to work through a series of screens to help with setup. Note: Currently, Apple Intelligence is not available in China or the EU.
AI for the rest of us.
Apple’s approach to AI is different. You won’t be seeing a shiny new Apple Intelligence app pop up on your Home Screen. Instead, Apple Intelligence will show up as new tools and features added to your device’s existing apps and operations. Things just start working differently, including:
- Writing tools – Proofread and rewrite text, transcribe audio recordings in the Notes and Phone apps (including recorded phone calls), generate summaries of text content.
- Photos – Edit images in Photos to erase unwanted elements with ease.
- Create Memory Movies – Type a description of the video you want. Apple Intelligence will then put together a “Memory Movie” using your text as a prompt, pulling photos and videos to match it. Apple claims the resulting clip will have a storyline, chapters based on themes identified from the photos and even a narrative arc.
- Natural language search in photos and videos – Use sophisticated prompts to find photos and events in videos. For example, “Don fishing on a sunny day”.
- Notification summaries – Long and/or stacked notifications will now be summarized on the iPhone’s lock screen. This can be turned on and off in Settings.
- Reduce Interruptions Focus. This mode minimizes distractions by filtering notifications and app alerts, allowing users to focus on tasks without interruption. However, this mode will be bypassed if Apple perceives a particular notification to be critical, such as “Pick up your child.”
- Priority messages in mail – The most important e-mails (at least, in Apple’s opinion) will be sorted to the top of the e-mail list.
- Smart reply – A much more intelligent autoreply including suggested responses as well as the identification of any questions in the original e-mail as well as the generated answers.
- Summarize mails and messages. This will happen without opening the mail or message and will condense long threads.
- Improvements to Siri – Type to Siri, more natural voices, and more resilient request handling.
Apple will be adding features over time, including a significant upgrade in December. The December upgrade is expected to include priority notifications, onscreen awareness for Siri, and AI-generated emoji.
The Empires strike back.
Not wanting to let Apple have all the fun, Anthropic and Google either released or announced “computer usage” upgrades. Anthropic added the capability for its Large Language Model to use a computer like a human would with its Sonnet 3.5 release. The “beta preview” functionality allows users to go through the Sonnet 3.5 Application Programming Interface (API) to translate natural language prompts into actions with website applications that mimic human behavior.
Google proved that while it may not be the fastest to market, it still retains the marketing crown with the announcement of Gemini 2.0’s Jarvis AI. Named after the AI invented by Tony Stark in the Marvel Iron Man series, Google’s Jarvis promises to do for Chrome browsers what Apple Intelligence did for the iPhone. Release is expected in December.
Infinitive AI Labs will provide reviews of Anthropic’s Claude 3.5 and Google’s Gemeni Jarvis in later blog posts.
