iPhone 16 built around Apple Intelligence AI features
The consumer electronics giant introduced a new generation of iPhones with generative AI features such as writing tools, summarization and better Siri.
The new iPhone 16 smartphones are built on Apple Intelligence, the consumer electronics giant revealed on Monday.
During its Glowtime product introduction event, Apple said its generative AI system Apple Intelligence will deliver a better experience for iPhone users.
With Apple Intelligence, the new iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus lines use the Apple A18 chip and Apple's proprietary generative AI models. The iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max also will be able to use Apple Intelligence, but earlier models will not.
"We're bringing together that personal context with the power of generative models to deliver intelligence that understands [users]," said Craig Federighi, senior vice president of software engineering at Apple, at the Glowtime event at Apple headquarters in Cupertino, Calif.
Apple Intelligence and iPhone 16
Some key features of iPhones 16 and 16 Plus include enhanced writing, summarized notifications and prioritized messages in Mail.
With new Writing Tools built into iOS 18 -- expected to be released as a free update on Sept. 16 -- users can rewrite, proofread and summarize texts in different applications such as Mail, Notes, Pages and third-party apps. The Notes application can also record, transcribe and summarize audio as well as create summaries of key points during a recorded call.
Siri now has richer language understanding capabilities with Apple Intelligence, the vendor said. It also understands more Apple products and can answer questions about features on iPhones and other Apple devices.
The consumer electronics vendor also revealed that later this year, users can access ChatGPT from OpenAI while using features like Siri and Writing Tools.
Other than Siri, Apple Intelligence also is embedded in Camera and Photos. Users can search for specific photos using natural language and search for moments in video clips.
Apple plans to unveil visual intelligence features later this year to help users learn more about their surroundings. With this Camera Control feature, users can use their camera to learn about hours of or ratings for a restaurant, add an event from a flyer to their calendar or identify a dog breed, Apple said.
However, the key questions are what the extent to which Apple planned to integrate Apple Intelligence into the iPhone 16 is and whether "it would open up a new era where AI smartphones truly become our sixth sense," Forrester Research analyst Thomas Husson said.
While Apple continues to pay attention to details that improve users' experiences, it still has some work to do with Siri, Husson said.
"I don't think Siri is yet a new interface that will change how we interact with the world around us," he said.
With these new releases, they mostly caught up with the market and positioned themselves slightly ahead of others.
Andy ThuraiAnalyst, Constellation Research
However, Apple's changes to Siri show that the voice assistant will become an agent that uses on-device information and personal context to deliver new multimodal experiences and act on users' behalf, Husson continued.
While Apple Intelligence brings the power of AI to the iPhone, Apple is still mostly catching up with Samsung, Google and other Android devices, said Andy Thurai, an analyst at Constellation Research.
Apple smartphones have lacked AI writing tools, image editing and summarization compared to Google-powered devices, for example, he added.
"With these new releases, they mostly caught up with the market and positioned themselves slightly ahead of others," Thurai said. "But this will be short-lived against the competition."
But Apple's new visual intelligence technology provides a glimpse into the future when smartphones will scan beyond the world around users, Husson said.
"The new Camera Control at the heart of Apple's visual intelligence, is also the gateway to third-party tools from Google and ChatGPT," he said.
Apple is designing the camera in a secure way, so that it's restricted to the Apple ecosystem and hard to misuse users' data, Husson said.
"This is Apple's walled garden, and it will carefully control and curate the experience, " he continued.
Continued focus on privacy
While providing a better iPhone experience with Apple Intelligence, Apple kept privacy in mind.
The iPhone maker revealed that for more computationally intensive tasks, Apple Intelligence can unlock more with Private Cloud Compute.
"Private Cloud Compute maintains the privacy and security of your iPhone while giving you access to generative models much larger than what fits in your pocket today," Federighi said.
With Private Cloud Compute, users' data is not stored with Apple, and independent experts can verify the privacy promise, Apple said.
"Apple has figured out a way to stay core to their privacy theme which is impressive and unique in the AI industry," Thurai said.
Thurai said this differentiates Apple from other AI vendors in the market struggling to balance using consumer data for training models versus providing a model that "meets user-specific intention with user-specific data."
The iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus will be available for pre-order starting Sept. 20. Apple Intelligence will be available as a free update. The first set of Apple Intelligence features will be available in beta next month as part of iOS 18.1, Apple said.
Apple also introduced a new Apple Watch series that can track sleep apnea -- a feature already available on the Samsung Galaxy Watch -- and new AirPods wireless earbuds.
Esther Ajao is a TechTarget Editorial news writer and podcast host covering artificial intelligence software and systems.
