Apple CEO Tim Cook said at the beginning of last February that the company would announce major developments related to artificial intelligence soon during this year.
His statements coincided with the company’s launch of its largest new product in years, which is the “Apple Vision Pro” augmented reality glasses, which are actually equipped with some artificial intelligence features, such as producing virtual characters for the user through artificial intelligence models.
But what is closest to reality is that these statements confirm what was stated by Mark Gurman, a Bloomberg journalist specializing in covering Apple affairs, who claimed that the upcoming operating system, “iOS 18,” for iPhone phones, will be “one of the largest system updates in the company’s history,” which is the update. The new one that Apple will announce during its annual developers conference (WWDC) next June.
The latest on iOS 18 from the Q&A section of Power On: I’m told that the new operating system is seen within the company as one of the biggest iOS updates — if not the biggest — in the company’s history. Stay tuned for more.
— Mark Gurman (@markgurman) January 28, 2024
This statement was not an exaggeration, because the technical community is waiting for an answer to an important question: When will Apple begin competing in the field of generative artificial intelligence, which has become crowded now, especially since it was late and was not among the major players in this field such as Microsoft, Google, and Meta?
Introduction to the world of artificial intelligence
Apple had announced the date of its annual developers conference several days ago, and set its start on the tenth of next June, which is the usual annual date for revealing updates to the operating systems of the company’s devices, the most important of which, of course, is the iPhone operating system “iOS 18” and the iOS 18 operating system. Operating iPad OS 18 tablets.
What is different about this year’s updates is that they will likely be the company’s official introduction to the world of generative artificial intelligence, after months of expectations, leaks, and press reports. The company’s usual strategy is to be late, or slow, in adopting any new technologies. The launch of the “Vision Pro” mixed reality glasses itself is about a decade late since the spread of such devices in the markets.
This is the same case with the software features that it announces in its operating systems. The company often announces the addition of new features to its phone operating systems years after the spread of these features in various Android phones, so it does not seem surprising that it has late entry into the field of artificial intelligence, and perhaps the most logical entry is the system. The most popular and popular operating system is iOS.
It is noted that Apple will not resort to its own generative artificial intelligence model, but it has entered into talks with Google and OpenAI to research the possibility of using their “Gemini” and “GPT Chat” models on iPhones in the new “iOS 18” operating system. As a recent report from Bloomberg noted.
But it seems that the negotiations between Apple and Google are nearing their end regarding this agreement, to include the “Gemini” model in the new update, because the deal may depend on the distinguished history and good relationship between the two companies in the field of Internet search, as Google pays Apple billions of dollars annually to keep the latter. Google search engine is the default engine in Safari browsers on iPhones and other devices.
The set of new features that Apple is preparing, as part of the new version “iOS 18” based on its own models of artificial intelligence, will focus on features that work directly on the company’s devices and do not require cloud computing services, so the company is seeking to find a partner that will undertake the major tasks of intelligence. Generative artificial intelligence such as creating images and writing texts based on simple commands from the user.
So what exactly do we expect to see, in terms of new artificial intelligence features, in iOS 18?
What is different about this year’s updates is that they will often be Apple’s official introduction to the world of generative artificial intelligence (Reuters)
An upgraded version of Siri!
iOS updates often add a host of new features to Siri, allowing the iPhone digital assistant to answer more questions based on its knowledge without resorting to the usual “this is what I found on the Internet” answer. But these updates, as usual, were not sufficient or noticeable to make Siri a truly intelligent digital assistant that the user can rely on.
The matter may change with the new “iOS 18” update, which may take the iPhone’s digital assistant to an advanced level of interaction by taking advantage of the features of generative artificial intelligence. What the reports indicate is that this new update is the “Siri 2.0” version, and initially it was Pointing out that the digital assistant was Apple’s attempt to launch its own new chatbot, then subsequent reports denied this. This was confirmed by Apple’s talks with Google to use the Gemini robot to support iPhone phones in the near future, as we mentioned.
The important thing here is that the developed version of the digital assistant “Siri” will have a greater ability to conduct conversations with the user in addition to processing complex tasks, and this is what was indicated by a group of job advertisements in the field of artificial intelligence at the company, in addition to its current huge investments in this field, especially in Issuing research papers and participating in launching experimental models of artificial intelligence.
More artificial intelligence
Of course, the matter will not stop at the digital assistant “Siri”, because Apple plans to integrate more artificial intelligence features into its operating systems and in its various virtual applications, as the rapid growth and enormous influence of the “GBT Chat” robot, in addition to the efforts of its largest competitors in… The field of artificial intelligence has left the impression that Apple is actually lagging behind in this technical race, so the company seeks to catch up with these competitors and announce some developments at the upcoming developers conference.
According to a report by Mark Gurman, last January, Apple’s list of new features will include adding summary and auto-complete tools to core iPhone apps, such as Pages and Keynote.
Applications such as the Music app will also receive artificial intelligence features, such as the ability to automatically create song playlists. In addition, the Spotlight search feature is trained on large language models, which are the artificial intelligence models that the chatbots we use, such as the GPT chatbot, rely on.
Apple’s artificial intelligence strategy may not necessarily be to add new features to its default applications only, but it may announce a new store for artificial intelligence applications at the World Developers Conference (WWDC) for the first time, which is another attempt in the company’s strategy to reap profits from its entry into this race.
This is what Ben Ritzis, head of the technology research department at Melius Research, recently indicated in his interview with CNBC, as he believes that Apple will lay the foundation for a new application store for artificial intelligence next June. This will apparently include details about how users can obtain AI applications from different developers, and this new store may be part of Apple’s existing App Store.
Ritzes believes that this store is similar to the iPhone App Store strategy, as Apple offers its own applications, but benefits more from applications from other developers and companies. In the same context, he believes that the company may offer its own artificial intelligence features and applications, but to win the race, it will try to create this store and persuade other developers to participate.
These expectations may be logical, especially after the recent talks between Apple and Google about using the “Gemini” model. There may also have been talk about a new store for this type of advanced applications. In general, we have to wait for the opening speech of the conference on the tenth of next June, to confirm the validity of these expectations.
