A rather lame, half-baked, underwhelming attempt at AI.
A $3000B company with thousands and thousands of developers and a history of spectacular innovations can’t come up with its own AI?
I think that is a bit unfair. Apple has gone down a different path to the other server centric AI models. And, I would point out, what Apple has been calling ML for five years is a lot of what people now call AI. This is what I assume is the plan from what I can glean for the key or at technical websites (well, Ars).
Apple Intelligence = on device ML and local LLM (smart Siri) + private, personal encrypted LLM on Apple servers ( no one else has done that bit)
ChatGPT integration = if Apple Intelligence can’t help, then go outside the privacy wall to ChatGPT (while still limiting private info) or any other LLM that sets up a future deal with Apple. And you must give permission for smart Siri to do so when it has to.
All in all a deep, integrated system where on device is first priority and privacy considered at all steps. And that private LLM framework is pretty big. This is a very different path to other offerings while leveraging existing LLM frameworks. Whether it works (hi Siri!) we have yet to see.
The only sure thing about Apple intelligence, as they say, it's just the beginning. Next year keynote will announce a more intelligent (or less stupid) version and that will not be free anymore.
Apple is not improving the iPhone anymore, just small changes. So they need to switch to a new revenue model where you have to pay every month to use their phone.
If you listen well, when they announce that it's free in the keynote, there is an inconfortable feel in the voice. Just first release will be free... get ready to open your wallet.
Will be really interesting to see how these web based platforms, where you are the product, address questions related to privacy.
For sure they cannot offer what Apple is doing.
Also interesting how they played down the Apple data center chips.
No they cannot, but it doesn’t matter much. Consumers have largely become very comfortable sacrificing privacy for convenience. There’s a pretty narrow subset of people for whom privacy still matters, perhaps in enterprise. The rest are happy — or oblivious — to trade it for the next splashy thing. If you thought people were willing to give up their data to social media, just wait and see the level of detail they share with a “personal“ AI assistant.
Over all I liked what I saw, there's something it it for everyone, even the older phones, although I suspect the 3 year upgrade cycle is over this year (I'm cool with my 15 Pro) 😊, but Apple will sell a bucket load of iPhone 16's this year! I also like the fact, AirPods Pro 2 are getting voice isolation, a big, big improvement, also moving your head with Siri is a nice to have. My only disappointment is not enough done in photo editing, the best take on Pixel is a killer feature, although I do understand it doesn't work every time, also why can't we enhance our older photos in IOS like the vision OS?
Will be really interesting to see how these web based platforms, where you are the product, address questions related to privacy.
For sure they cannot offer what Apple is doing.
Also interesting how they played down the Apple data center chips.
No they cannot, but it doesn’t matter much. Consumers have largely become very comfortable sacrificing privacy for convenience. There’s a pretty narrow subset of people for whom privacy still matters, perhaps in enterprise. The rest are happy — or oblivious — to trade it for the next splashy thing. If you thought people were willing to give up their data to social media, just wait and see the level of detail they share with a “personal“ AI assistant.
Consumers are NOT "comfortable" sacrificing privacy. They want to share pictures w/family and friend, they want to create web sites for free, to do that they must, as in they have, no choice, but to acquiesce and agree to the terms of service which are so daunting and non-negotiable.
As you say people are oblivious, I seriously doubt, if ANYone understands why ChatGPT release last year. Not to say checkout our cool chatbot. No they hit a brick wall and needed users (beta testers) to exercise the technology and train the models so it could grow to the next plateau.
Impressive foundation. They are focused on practical applications of the technology for the average user, and utilizing their own servers and AS for processing this data. No other company has the hardware ecosystem that Apple does combined with the control over the processors for these devices, so they are absolutely in a unique position.
"In iOS 18, Apple Intelligence is codenamed Graymatter. There are references to a waitlist, with specific strings that say “Join the Graymatter Waiting List” and “Joined Waitlist.” There is also wording that refers to it as a “limited preview.”
“While Graymatter is in limited preview, you may experience unusually slow responses when not in a supported region.”
It’s probably not quite right to say that most users will be locked out from the benefits of AI. I speculate that a subset of the on-device features will come to models prior to the iPhone 15, limited to non-generative technologies which require more processing power. I guess we will learn more closer to release as Apple tests individual features on different phone models to determine what can run successfully.
But more interesting to me is using Apple silicon in the data centres. This is very strategic. They are going to invest in their own AI processors (I’m sure these will be custom chips, not M series models). This is a two-way win. They invest in their own AI design technology which avoids funding Nvidia as a competitor, and builds expertise in neural processing units they can apply to future M series chips. I can’t think of a competitor which will gain this level of vertical expertise. A strategic advantage if they get it right.
1) I don’r care and only want to to that AI OFF, and 2) zero updates to iPadOS usability, pathetic. All that money for an M4 iPad & keyboard & we get nothing.
Completely blown away with the measured and savvy AI strategy from Apple. Rather than getting into the Buy all the Nvidia cards war of attrition they are doing things a lot smarter. Much of the inference "Capex" will be borne by the customer since inference is on device. Brilliant PCC stuff and smart pluggable OpenAI integration that can be swapped out if needed in the future.
I also think their image generation models are careful as to not alienate their key partners in the creative space, while providing useful things for all consumer normies.
Big letdown was no explicit reveal on HomePod Siri which is frankly lobotomised at this stage.
Overall I see mass device upgrades in the future as people want to benefit from all the benefits. Math Notes is incredible.
I am thinking that Apple may have some form of optionality in models they use for M1, 2, 3 and 4 given that their RAM config and NPU spec varies a lot.
1) I don’r care and only want to to that AI OFF, and 2) zero updates to iPadOS usability, pathetic. All that money for an M4 iPad & keyboard & we get nothing.
There’s always android. Some people are never satisfied.
A rather lame, half-baked, underwhelming attempt at AI.
A $3000B company with thousands and thousands of developers and a history of spectacular innovations can’t come up with its own AI?
I think that is a bit unfair. Apple has gone down a different path to the other server centric AI models. And, I would point out, what Apple has been calling ML for five years is a lot of what people now call AI. This is what I assume is the plan from what I can glean for the key or at technical websites (well, Ars).
Apple Intelligence = on device ML and local LLM (smart Siri) + private, personal encrypted LLM on Apple servers ( no one else has done that bit)
ChatGPT integration = if Apple Intelligence can’t help, then go outside the privacy wall to ChatGPT (while still limiting private info) or any other LLM that sets up a future deal with Apple. And you must give permission for smart Siri to do so when it has to.
All in all a deep, integrated system where on device is first priority and privacy considered at all steps. And that private LLM framework is pretty big. This is a very different path to other offerings while leveraging existing LLM frameworks. Whether it works (hi Siri!) we have yet to see.
"Apple Intelligence has a lot of expertise around working with text. It’s a sophisticated copy editing tool that’s capable of summarizing bodies of text and even transforming tone to be more professional or friendlier.
However, don’t expect Apple Intelligence to write the first draft of your email from scratch for you when it rolls out this fall. Instead, Apple is integrating ChatGPT for that capability.
Next is a clear example of broad world knowledge.
Imagine a scenario where you’re gifted a house plant. You snap a photo of the subject with your iPhone, ask Siri about the plant type, and find out how best to care for the plant."
There are a few things that would be useful, an improved Siri for example. But there has never in my recollection been a WWDC keynote where I said “Oh F*** no” quite as many times. Many of their headline abilities I will just want to disable as soon as I can and as completely as I can. I AM an artist. I AM a writer. I have no use for AI generating my images and text.
Remember that you are not required to upgrade the operating system on any of your existing Apple devices. You are free to stick with iOS 17 and macOS Sonoma (or earlier).
Here's what I wrote in a separate thread: "Remember that almost everything Apple's devices can be disabled. Location Services, Notifications, Siri, iCloud services, Face ID, Touch ID, Apple Pay, microphone access, photo library access, camera access, music library access, Bluetooth, Wifi, whatever. You can basically run your iPhone like an iPod circa 2008 if you want."
If you have used Apple devices for more than a month and watched the keynote presentation with a modicum of attention, you will have noticed that these are ALL optional actions. If you just want to write an e-mail and hit send, you are still free to do so. You are free to type out your grocery list on Notes, draw stick figure people, make spelling errors, etc.
I am using an iP11, it is due for an upgrade. When that happens I will have no choice but to go to 18. Believe me I will be disabling as much of the AI S*** as I can as fast as I can.
I understand you’re an artist but what you are you so afraid about ai features? It’s only there to help you, not to replace you.
The demo was awesome, but then I'm really disappointed this is iPhone 15+ only. What does all the machine learning silicon actually do in the iPhone 12/13/14 if it apparently can't be used for Siri? Apple bleated on about it enough in previous Keynotes. Kind of shows they were caught off guard on this by OpenAI/ChatGPT, and the ML silicon just isn't suited to LLMs. There is very little in iOS < 18 that really *needs* ML hardware, since very little ML stuff is real time. Most is processed overnight when the phone is connected to power.
Does this mean that current gen HomePods will just decay and never get Apple Intelligence, since they just have the same SoC as the Watch? Or will Apple announce HomePod 3 with A17+ CPUs? I doubt it somehow. Offloading the Siri requests to a phone will be as unreliable and sluggish as it is now, just the end result would be an improvement.
Aside from all that, there weren't many changes to iOS that aren't AI related. So anything older than the 15 doesn't get much more than the ability to re-jig their home screen, a new layout in Photos and iMessage text effects.
I’m a self employed builder so these ”AI” (a bullshit term if ever I heard one) improvements should be very handy. Improved Siri and the ability to easily generate images on the fly that show clients what product options will look like in situ - yes please. Hopefully there’s a trickle down of some AI features to my iPhone 14 Pro, otherwise my daughter might be fighting over a very nice 2 year old hand me down iPhone!
Based on Apple's track record, I doubt if they will backport any of these AI features to older devices. It's not like they don't know how well they would run on these older machines.
And a year from now, Apple will announce new features some of which will only run on the iPhone 17 generation. If you have owned any Apple hardware devices more than a year, you should know this.
Reading between the lines, anyway, I think these features will only be available to beta test on iPhone 15 Pro, but in final implementation, may be available on earlier models, but without the possibility of on-device AI processing, because the hardware can't do it. True enough, some new features are only available on the latest model because of hardware requirements, but a surprising amount of new OS features are added to older models as well. This is part of the premium cost of Apple gear. The initial purchase price includes the costs of several years of upgrades to your existing device.
There are a few things that would be useful, an improved Siri for example. But there has never in my recollection been a WWDC keynote where I said “Oh F*** no” quite as many times. Many of their headline abilities I will just want to disable as soon as I can and as completely as I can. I AM an artist. I AM a writer. I have no use for AI generating my images and text.
Remember that you are not required to upgrade the operating system on any of your existing Apple devices. You are free to stick with iOS 17 and macOS Sonoma (or earlier).
Here's what I wrote in a separate thread: "Remember that almost everything Apple's devices can be disabled. Location Services, Notifications, Siri, iCloud services, Face ID, Touch ID, Apple Pay, microphone access, photo library access, camera access, music library access, Bluetooth, Wifi, whatever. You can basically run your iPhone like an iPod circa 2008 if you want."
If you have used Apple devices for more than a month and watched the keynote presentation with a modicum of attention, you will have noticed that these are ALL optional actions. If you just want to write an e-mail and hit send, you are still free to do so. You are free to type out your grocery list on Notes, draw stick figure people, make spelling errors, etc.
I am using an iP11, it is due for an upgrade. When that happens I will have no choice but to go to 18. Believe me I will be disabling as much of the AI S*** as I can as fast as I can.
You'll probably disable less than you think. No, if you're a professional writer, you don't want AI gunking up your mojo. That said, there are a lot of features on your iPhone that you use just like any other end-user, and you'll probably find the convenience of a pocket assistant useful. Even with the written word, not everything is a creative writing project. There are no doubt any number of mundane business communications that if you employed a personal assistant, with a few instructions for what you want, you'd hand that stuff off to them to write. Now you'll be able to do the same with the PA in your pocket.
I disagree.
Apple will not backport beta-tested iPhone 15 Pro features to older devices. If a feature is meant to be available on a particular device, the functionality will be available to test during the iOS beta period on those devices. That's what the beta is for: for people (developers mostly) to test. Remember that there are far more iPhone 13 out in the world than the number of iPhone 13 devices in Apple's various campuses around the world.
It's not like Apple will say "This feature ran great on the iPhone 15 Pro. Let's release it to a bunch of older devices and cross our fingers." Some other companies might do that but not Apple. They aren't that pathetically inept.
Actually, Apple has back-ported things post-announcement. Facetime was one, Airplay 2 was another, memoji too.
The demo was awesome, but then I'm really disappointed this is iPhone 15+ only. What does all the machine learning silicon actually do in the iPhone 12/13/14 if it apparently can't be used for Siri?
Context-aware AI needs a lot of memory, the 15 Pro and Pro Max (not Plus) have 8GB RAM, every other iPhone has 6GB or less. The smaller AI models on Mac use around 6-8GB RAM. I expect even the 15 Pro and Pro Max will have issues running the AI (background apps and browser tabs flushed out of memory) and they will be best run on this year's iPhone 16 Pro models, which could ship with up to 16GB RAM.
The Neural Engine performance also increased going from iPhone 12 to 15, it looks like 3-4x speedup. Maybe the responses would be fast enough at half the speed of iPhone 15 but there's a point where the lag is noticeable.
Generative AI is very heavy on processing and memory so some hardware cutoff makes sense, it's not just for upselling. The good thing is that it should encourage manufacturers to ship higher entry spec on new hardware.
There are a few things that would be useful, an improved Siri for example. But there has never in my recollection been a WWDC keynote where I said “Oh F*** no” quite as many times. Many of their headline abilities I will just want to disable as soon as I can and as completely as I can. I AM an artist. I AM a writer. I have no use for AI generating my images and text.
Your concerns are completely legitimate because you have mastered your craft and honed your skills based on what you have invested in yourself over several decades. Everything you do has a human element and unique personal style and expression that is exclusive to you and your knowledge and passion.
Unfortunately, it's impossible to stop the industrialization and automation train from running over much of what humans used to take great pride in accomplishing themselves. There's nothing quite like experiencing the expression laden and nuanced vocals that a truly talented and superbly trained/practiced vocalist can contribute to a song. Then there's things like autotune processing or pitch correction software that can manipulate the vocals from a singer with far less talent, training, and practice time into something that superficially resembles what you'd hear from a truly talented singer.
Of course manipulated vocals never have qualities that are attributable to human expression and variability. Machines and software that coerce a lesser talented, trained, and practiced audio source to match a predefined tuning standard are bound to sound lifeless and robotic. Over time the manipulation algorithms and processing will improve, listeners will normalize their expectations around a sound that cannot be replicated by any human, and the motivation for human singers to strive towards achieving mastery will be greatly diminished.
Consider Apple's current way of doing events like the one on Monday. The current events are ultra-slick and highly produced pre-packaged broadcasts. God forbid Tim or one of his team members stumbles on a sentence or flubs a demo, as humans are prone to do. Just ditch the uncertainty of a live event event and erase all of the mistakes from the recording. A perfect presentation lacking only the human element. Sure, all of the Apple event contributors tried their best to appear as they would in a live setting, but it is never the same as having a human standing right right there in front of you, perhaps occasionally straying off script and the immediate feedback emanating from the local live audience that sometimes elicits an immediate response or reaction from the speaker. Apple could have substituted Memoji versions of each of the presenters with no loss of the message being presented.
The industrialization and automation of things that used to be human centric applies to much more than composing, singing, fabrication, and presenting. Anything that used be done by humans and is now done by machines and automation has transformed our society as a whole and there is no turning back. It's just a matter of time before machines, automation, algorithms, and now AI steps on your toes and renders what you've been doing a quaint little niche that's appreciated by a few for what it is, while the mainstream will have moved on to the industrialized version that replaces you. I've always considered software development to be one of the things that came closest to human creativity, intellect, and expression because it lacks the physical constraints and immutable laws that set hard limits on how far and wide you can go with other engineered solutions. But it's just a matter of time before AI and automation take over many aspects of software development, especially at the implementation/code writing level.
Comments
ChatGPT integration = if Apple Intelligence can’t help, then go outside the privacy wall to ChatGPT (while still limiting private info) or any other LLM that sets up a future deal with Apple. And you must give permission for smart Siri to do so when it has to.
Apple is not improving the iPhone anymore, just small changes. So they need to switch to a new revenue model where you have to pay every month to use their phone.
If you listen well, when they announce that it's free in the keynote, there is an inconfortable feel in the voice. Just first release will be free... get ready to open your wallet.
I also like the fact, AirPods Pro 2 are getting voice isolation, a big, big improvement, also moving your head with Siri is a nice to have.
My only disappointment is not enough done in photo editing, the best take on Pixel is a killer feature, although I do understand it doesn't work every time, also why can't we enhance our older photos in IOS like the vision OS?
As you say people are oblivious, I seriously doubt, if ANYone understands why ChatGPT release last year. Not to say checkout our cool chatbot. No they hit a brick wall and needed users (beta testers) to exercise the technology and train the models so it could grow to the next plateau.
"In iOS 18, Apple Intelligence is codenamed Graymatter. There are references to a waitlist, with specific strings that say “Join the Graymatter Waiting List” and “Joined Waitlist.” There is also wording that refers to it as a “limited preview.”
“While Graymatter is in limited preview, you may experience unusually slow responses when not in a supported region.”
I also think their image generation models are careful as to not alienate their key partners in the creative space, while providing useful things for all consumer normies.
Big letdown was no explicit reveal on HomePod Siri which is frankly lobotomised at this stage.
Overall I see mass device upgrades in the future as people want to benefit from all the benefits. Math Notes is incredible.
I am thinking that Apple may have some form of optionality in models they use for M1, 2, 3 and 4 given that their RAM config and NPU spec varies a lot.
"Apple Intelligence has a lot of expertise around working with text. It’s a sophisticated copy editing tool that’s capable of summarizing bodies of text and even transforming tone to be more professional or friendlier.
However, don’t expect Apple Intelligence to write the first draft of your email from scratch for you when it rolls out this fall. Instead, Apple is integrating ChatGPT for that capability.
Next is a clear example of broad world knowledge.
Imagine a scenario where you’re gifted a house plant. You snap a photo of the subject with your iPhone, ask Siri about the plant type, and find out how best to care for the plant."
ChatGPT will provide that answer
Does this mean that current gen HomePods will just decay and never get Apple Intelligence, since they just have the same SoC as the Watch? Or will Apple announce HomePod 3 with A17+ CPUs? I doubt it somehow. Offloading the Siri requests to a phone will be as unreliable and sluggish as it is now, just the end result would be an improvement.
Aside from all that, there weren't many changes to iOS that aren't AI related. So anything older than the 15 doesn't get much more than the ability to re-jig their home screen, a new layout in Photos and iMessage text effects.
The Neural Engine performance also increased going from iPhone 12 to 15, it looks like 3-4x speedup. Maybe the responses would be fast enough at half the speed of iPhone 15 but there's a point where the lag is noticeable.
Generative AI is very heavy on processing and memory so some hardware cutoff makes sense, it's not just for upselling. The good thing is that it should encourage manufacturers to ship higher entry spec on new hardware.
Unfortunately, it's impossible to stop the industrialization and automation train from running over much of what humans used to take great pride in accomplishing themselves. There's nothing quite like experiencing the expression laden and nuanced vocals that a truly talented and superbly trained/practiced vocalist can contribute to a song. Then there's things like autotune processing or pitch correction software that can manipulate the vocals from a singer with far less talent, training, and practice time into something that superficially resembles what you'd hear from a truly talented singer.
Of course manipulated vocals never have qualities that are attributable to human expression and variability. Machines and software that coerce a lesser talented, trained, and practiced audio source to match a predefined tuning standard are bound to sound lifeless and robotic. Over time the manipulation algorithms and processing will improve, listeners will normalize their expectations around a sound that cannot be replicated by any human, and the motivation for human singers to strive towards achieving mastery will be greatly diminished.
Consider Apple's current way of doing events like the one on Monday. The current events are ultra-slick and highly produced pre-packaged broadcasts. God forbid Tim or one of his team members stumbles on a sentence or flubs a demo, as humans are prone to do. Just ditch the uncertainty of a live event event and erase all of the mistakes from the recording. A perfect presentation lacking only the human element. Sure, all of the Apple event contributors tried their best to appear as they would in a live setting, but it is never the same as having a human standing right right there in front of you, perhaps occasionally straying off script and the immediate feedback emanating from the local live audience that sometimes elicits an immediate response or reaction from the speaker. Apple could have substituted Memoji versions of each of the presenters with no loss of the message being presented.
The industrialization and automation of things that used to be human centric applies to much more than composing, singing, fabrication, and presenting. Anything that used be done by humans and is now done by machines and automation has transformed our society as a whole and there is no turning back. It's just a matter of time before machines, automation, algorithms, and now AI steps on your toes and renders what you've been doing a quaint little niche that's appreciated by a few for what it is, while the mainstream will have moved on to the industrialized version that replaces you. I've always considered software development to be one of the things that came closest to human creativity, intellect, and expression because it lacks the physical constraints and immutable laws that set hard limits on how far and wide you can go with other engineered solutions. But it's just a matter of time before AI and automation take over many aspects of software development, especially at the implementation/code writing level.