We tested Apple Intelligence on a Mac. These are our conclusions

What is Apple Intelligence? The AI ​​promised by Apple in June of this year is arriving, but “in installments”, with a series of progressive releases over the coming months. The first tranche of active features is available with last week’s updates for all iPhone, iPad, and Mac operating systems.

Apple’s AI system can be used in English in most regions of the world; including Spain and Latin America, except China. In the European Union it is only available on macOS Sequoia 15.1. The resource will be adapted later this year in regions such as New Zealand, Canada and the United Kingdom.

I tested it with my MacBook Air M3 with 16GB of RAM, with one important note: English is not my native language. I explored the writing, editing and rewriting features, pitch changes, and summaries, but like the new, more flexible version of Siri, they only work in American English; which was an inconvenience when I asked him to compose a WhatsApp message for an acquaintance with an Italian name and surname. Although this will no longer be an issue in 2025 when you receive support for languages ​​​​such as Spanish, French, Chinese, Italian and Japanese. Once this point is clarified, let’s go in order.

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A digital ‘butler’ between privacy and limits

The new features are basically four: Writing Tools with review, reformulation and synthesis of texts, the new Siri able to understand and do more things, the app of Photos with improved image management; from low-light ‘noise’ reduction, removal of unwanted objects called Clean up, to natural language search. And finally the Synthesis of notifications and emails from Apple’s own Mail application.

The AI ​​system behaves like a high-end English butler: discreet, efficient, respectful of privacy, and fully integrated with the operating system. However, this approach comes at a price in terms of functionality, as some operations require more steps than necessary compared to the competition; especially Google’s Gemini, for integration with Android, or ChatGPT with Windows Copilot. On-device processing is a strong point – it requires an A17 Pro or M-class processor, with at least 8GB of RAM – but it also limits the potential for some more advanced features.

Writing tools, summarize emails, messages or notifications, use Siri and apply AI in Photos. This is the list of tasks they can do with the help of Apple Intelligence.

Antonio Early

Siri

Siri, Apple’s digital assistant, was the first to enter the market, but then fell a step behind Alexa and other assistants. With Apple Intelligence the rules of the game change. It is invoked with a simple ‘Siri’ (without the typical ‘Hey’ or ‘Hey’) and can understand both spoken and written commands. The feeling is that you will finally be able to understand and fulfill many more requests than before.

I was able to send messages in both Mail and app Messages and WhatsApp for Mac without problems. It doesn’t work with Telegram because the developer has not yet implemented Apple Intelligence on its platform. The new capabilities are great, except for the difficulty of controlling the layout of the text when dictating. If you are one of those who write very short and direct messages it is perfect, but if you have to argue and organize an email in paragraphs it is not so recommended.

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Photos

The possibilities of the photo application are the most interesting and at the same time, the least extraordinary. You can search for “things” within the app of Photos by simply describing them, or edit them to improve their quality and remove unwanted objects. They are certainly functions that we have seen before, either in third-party tools or in Android ones.

It would be interesting to see how it goes, not so much on the Mac, where I usually use Adobe’s Lightroom to edit my photos, but directly on the iPhone where I capture, make small adjustments and then share on social networks.

writing tools

Here are the most interesting news and at the same time the biggest barrier. Apple Intelligence summarizes the content of emails and web pages quickly and very briefly, just three or four lines and without any concession to the “emotional tone” of the content. He does it in an instant. At the moment the functions are in English: notifications and email reorganization. So I didn’t try much here.

Proofreading, editing, and creative rewriting tools are much more understandable in how they work. First of all, they are “features” and not a “product”, so they are available in all writable Apple or third-party apps. The part of checking for grammatical and syntactic errors is very interesting. However, rewriting is more intrusive, at least with the interface that the manufacturer has provided. This is because Apple Intelligence allows you to generate alternative text on one side of the page, and then completely replace it with the original, but without leaving a trace of the changes made and what has remained the same as before.

What is the “tone” of the writing like? It’s not just a matter of being native, I realized that the rewrites have that typical Silicon Valley tone that clashes a little with any other context. I tried rewriting a formal email and the result seemed like something out of an episode of Silicon Valley: full of “awesome” and “great.” The quality is there, there are no errors, at least that I know of, but you have to be familiar with American English to unravel the nuances and understand what the appropriate tone is.

Apple Intelligence can also be used with email.

Antonio EarlyThe iPad Mini 7 has arrived and is ready to run Apple Intelligence

Obviously the seventh generation is prepared for Apple Intelligence. It is already available in some countries and in a few days it will be available for pre-order from Latin America.

In conclusion

The demos shown on stage at the last Apple Keynote were truly spectacular, but the day-to-day reality; Even ignoring the language barrier, it is more nuanced. The system really works and, when it does, the result is surprising. The feeling is that of having a powerful but still immature tool in your hands, like a young magician who has yet to learn all the tricks.

Many of the features created with Apple Intelligence are not really new, but they are allowing Apple to close the gap on the competition. Others, like Writing Tools, are a bullet: they are integrated into the operating system and, therefore, become available to do everything with all the apps. Integration with other third-party assistants is also coming: the first expected is with ChatGPT, but Google and Anthropic could be just around the corner.

Launch of Apple Intelligence.

Antonio Early

Finally, it should be noted that there are still features missing, for example creating new emoji with a phrase from scratch, Visual Intelligence on the phone, or advanced Siri actions within the appslike the ones Anthropic is experimenting with now with Claude “taking control” of the computers. Apple Intelligence still has a long way to go. The beginning is good, we will see if it fulfills everything it promises.

Article originally published in WIRED Italia. Adapted by Alondra Flores.