Apple gives developers access to iOS 18 with AI, new Siri
The beta release includes AI-generated summaries for apps like mail, messages and voicemail. It does not include the ChatGPT integration or Image Playground.
Apple is giving developers a first look at some of its AI capabilities while delaying the release for consumers. The consumer tech vendor released the Apple Intelligence software, which includes a revamped Siri, in beta to registered Apple developers.
The move, on July 29, comes after Apple first introduced the AI software changes in June. It also comes after reports that the general release won't be until at least a month after Apple introduces its new iPhone 16 in September.
Apple Intelligence is expected to use OpenAI's ChatGPT to upgrade Siri. The Apple AI system uses multimodal fusion LLM technology and runs on-device with the latest iPhones using Apple chips for processing emails, texts, calendars, photos and other apps.
The early release comes with some capabilities but not all.
Some of the immediate changes stemming from the new Siri is that it causes the phone's edge to glow. The AI assistant can also understand difficult commands and answer questions about Apple products.
The beta release does not include the ChatGPT integration or the image-generating Image Playground feature.
Real step
"This is the first concrete step to getting this actually in the hands of users of Apple's devices and products," Forrester Research analyst Rowan Curran said.
He added that an introduction at a conference is relatively easy to do. But releasing the capabilities for developers to start building them into applications is a first step to getting a product to market.
"It will be interesting to see how developers report on their experience of working with the Apple intelligence toolset and ecosystem," Curran continued.
A challenge for enterprises trying to use AI and generative AI applications is the lack of appropriate software toolsets, he added.
There haven't been enough tools on the market to support developers integrating generative AI into their applications, he said.
"If Apple can provide a great developer experience and maybe set some industry standards around the paradigms around this stuff, I think that could potentially help move the market forward," Curran added.
While the developer experience is important, so is the consumer one.
In that sense, Apple's decision to delay the release of iOS 18.1, which will fully support Apple Intelligence and the upgraded Siri, to consumers is a smart move, Futurum Group analyst Olivier Blanchard said.
"It's better for them to be cautious and push it back a few weeks or even a couple of months if they need to and have a better release than have a release early that's going to create bad user experiences. That would be more damaging and embarrassing for their brand and more annoying to their users," Blanchard said.
A late strategy
While rolling it out to developers could help create the next use cases for generative AI technology, Apple should have reached out to developers earlier than this, he said.
"Apple is behind everyone on AI," Blanchard continued. "It's pretty clear that in the mobile space, they're very much behind the Android ecosystem when it comes to AI integration and, especially, on-device."
It will be interesting to see how developers report on their experience of working with the Apple intelligence toolset and ecosystem.
Rowan CurranAnalyst, Forrester Research
For example, Qualcomm, the chipmaker that makes chips for high-end phones, release its Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 smartphone processor, which integrates generative AI capabilities.
"There's a tremendous amount of front of the house and back of the house AI that users can already enjoy," Blanchard said. "Apple doesn't have that yet. Apple sort of came late to the game."
Similarly, in the PC market, Microsoft is already a player with Copilot+ PCs, AI PCs powered by neural processing units, a specialized AI computer chip.
On the other hand, Apple hasn't focused on bringing AI technology onto its chips. Instead, the iPhone maker appears to intent on outsourcing. On Monday, it said two AI models that Apple Intelligence uses were pretrained with Google's Tensor Processor Unit chips.
"It feels like they missed the boat on this and they're trying to catch up now," Blanchard said. "There's no doubt that they will."
Users with AI capabilities on the chip have access generative AI capabilities using GPT from OpenAI for queries involving outside information. Since many workloads are done on-device, it's hard for hackers or bad actors to intercept them,
However, because Apple Intelligence is still so dependent on software upgrades and cloud-based applications, it might be slower and less secure, Blanchard said.
Despite these challenges, many developers will continue to use Apple.
"Everyone was expecting this," Blanchard said. "Apple, as a customer … particularly in the United States, is so important that developers will just do whatever they need to get into the Apple ecosystem, and everything's going to be fine."
Esther Ajao is a TechTarget Editorial news writer and podcast host covering artificial intelligence software and systems.
