Saying we called Apple’s AI unveiling at the WWDC keynote, is like saying you predicted the sun rising. With everyone and everyone’s uncle calling for Apple to finally jump on the GenAI bandwagon, it was obvious that they would announce a whole slew of AI use cases. Yet they did so in the most Apple way possible: showing value rather than technology, and tightly integrating AI in your device and OS.

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Sprinkle on some AI 

To get it out of the way right away: Apple demonstrated no AI breakthroughs or novel use cases. None. They demoed all the uses we have by now come to expect of Generative AI. Yet, the demos were impressive. The tools might not be new, but they’re coming to everyone’s literal fingertips. 

Take text magic. As you encounter text or spoken words in Apple and third-party applications, text summarization and transcriptions are but a tap away. Any compose window adds the ability to proofread or play with words. 

That playground extends to image generation as well. Sure, there’s the separate Image Playground-app. But the generative capabilities will also be embedded in places where you communicate or create documents. An interesting take is to set you up with prompts. In messages, it will suggest occasions to celebrate with an image. In a document the generator detects the surrounding topics to get you going, giving ‘Blank prompt syndrome’ no chance. And, silly as it sounds, Genmoji will be huge. We’re living in a visual world, and with the ability to personalise or mix emojis, Apple is bringing AI to pop culture.

Those generative use cases are rapidly becoming the default way to compose texts and imagery, and Apple is adding them all over the place, like Apple knows how to. 

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Intelligence where you need it

But the intelligence use cases are where Apple comes into their own. To really make GPTs shine, they need your personal context. And boy did Apple stress they know you. 

Searching pictures or videos for ‘that time Chloe did a cartwheel in the garden’ shows Apple knows Photos is where your life is, and wants to help you relive those best moments. 

And Apple is not just aware of your memories. It dispatches your messages too. Adding language models to notifications makes prioritising them much easier. Even on do-not-disturb mode, iOS will still alert you when your partner is suggesting a change to the childcare routine.

But Apple Intelligence especially shines when it ties together information from different sources. When a 5 pm meeting is added to your Calendar, it will remind you your daughter mentioned her school play in Messages, and calculate whether you can combine both. 

Being able to ask when your mom’s plane lands is another example of Apple showing the benefits of having a GPT assistant tightly integrated with your OS. It surfaces the relevant flight from an email she shared, and checks actual arrival times. You can follow up by asking about the lunch plans you discussed with her while chatting.

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Virtual assistant tag team

In this demo, you’re asking Siri. That’s right: the much-mocked virtual assistant is back. With Apple confident about her new capabilities, it’s putting voice and chat gateways to Siri front and centre. (Even showing of a nice screen glow when Siri is doing her thing.)

The demos were cool, but we’ll truly believe it when it ships. But apart from the tight integration and easy access, there are two other approaches that might truly supercharge Siri.

One is ‘Actions’, allowing Siri to control apps on your behalf. If she truly makes a comeback, having her tentacles in Apple and third-party apps means Siri could finally come into her own. (We’ll be investigating the third-party abilities for sure!)

The other is ‘On-screen awareness’. This will allow Apple Intelligence to provide help based on what’s in front of you on the screen.  (One downside: although high-end Android devices already have ‘Circle-to-Search’, this contextual screen awareness is coming at a later stage.)

Coming immediately when launching the new versions of Apple’s AI-powered operating systems is ChatGPT integration.

Apple Intelligence will automatically detect whether a use case is best suited for on-device AI, or requires more powerful cloud capabilities. This means Siri and Apple Intelligence will sometimes suggest the help of ChatGPT.

What makes this approach especially clever:

• Help with 99 problems and PR ain’t one:
  By making it clear you will be engaging with ChatGPT and not Apple itself, all PR-damage is on Sam, not Tim.
• Permissions and privacy:
  Everyone was wondering how Apple would combine LLMs with their privacy-first approach. Calling in ChatGPT and giving it access to your personal context happens with explicit user consent.
• Assistants are the new apps:
  Access to ChatGPT will be free, and paying users can link their subscriptions. In the future, Apple Intelligence will also link with other assistants, like Gemini or Baidu (note: both rumored, not confirmed). Just like with the app ecosystem, Apple is the gatekeeper. 

Taken together, Siri and ChatGPT teaming up sets up Apple for an assistant-first future.

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Do the very best work

All eyes were on Apple and their AI strategy, and they delivered:

• Although they did talk about technology and architecture, it wasn't merely bragging about ‘Trillions of Operations per Second’ or other AI techbro mumbo jumbo. It was to show how to deliver value while safeguarding privacy. (On a side note: Apple Intelligence will require Apple silicon found in the iPhone 15 and the new iPhones, so we’re pretty confident this will spark a much-needed upgrade cycle for Apple.)
• They mostly talked about the capabilities it would offer users, and the experiences this would enable. ‘AI for the rest of us’ was a theme throughout the keynote, and we’re sure this elegant integration will greatly boost adoption of AI.

But, given it was WWDC (the developer conference) and there’s always ‘One more thing’, we felt especially excited by Tim Cook’s closing words. A lot of what was announced will be coming to us, product developers. Allowing us ‘to do the very best work of our lives’. Well, Tim, don’t mind if we do.

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