New features and OpenAI partnership mark a shift for the tech giant under pressure to match rivals’ AI advancements
On Monday, Apple CEO Tim Cook unveiled a range of generative artificial intelligence products and services during his keynote speech at the annual developer conference, WWDC. These include “Apple Intelligence” and a partnership with ChatGPT-maker OpenAI.
The introduction of these new tools signifies a significant shift toward AI for Apple, which has experienced slowing global sales over the past year and has integrated fewer AI features into its consumer-facing products compared to competitors.
“AI needs to understand you and be rooted in your personal context, including your routine, relationships, communications, and more. It goes beyond artificial intelligence; it’s personal intelligence,” said Cook. “Introducing… Apple Intelligence.”
Apple’s new artificial intelligence system features a suite of generative AI tools designed to create an automated, personalized experience on its devices. The demonstration showcased how the company’s AI will be integrated across the operating systems of its Mac laptops, iPad tablets, and iPhones, and will be capable of extracting information from and taking action within apps.
During the keynote, the company confirmed its highly anticipated partnership with OpenAI, announcing the integration of ChatGPT technology into a new version of its voice assistant, Siri. Executives promised a “more natural, more contextually relevant, and more personal” experience. The updated Siri will function as an AI chatbot, accept written instructions, and perform actions within apps based on voice prompts. Additionally, Siri will be capable of searching through emails, texts, and photos to find specific information based on relevant context.
An Apple executive demonstrated that the company’s AI could, for example, identify the word “daughter” in an email and link it to the corresponding phone contact. Apple Intelligence can also summarize notifications, emails, and texts. For instance, a group chat about trip planning could be condensed into a single message detailing who booked a hotel and when to arrive. Additionally, a new image generation tool enables users to create unique emoji reactions, while the new Image Playground feature can produce more complex visuals in various styles.
The company also announced an updated operating system for its Vision Pro headset. Previously available only in the US since its release in February, the virtual reality device will be launched in China, Japan, Singapore, Australia, Canada, France, and the United Kingdom within the next two months.
Apple announced it will adopt Rich Communication Services to enhance messaging between iPhones and other smartphones, and expand customization options for iMessage. Phones running Google’s Android operating system have long used this messaging protocol. Other incremental updates from WWDC include a redesigned Photos app, hiking maps in Apple Maps, tweaks to the Wallet app, customization options for texting, and satellite texting for areas without cell tower connections.
Apple Intelligence: A Game Changer or Too Late?
While the surge in generative AI has prompted tech giants like Google to overhaul their core services, Apple had refrained from integrating this technology into its flagship products until now. The absence of generative AI tools has consistently worried analysts and investors over the past year, who feared that Apple was lagging behind in the AI competition.
With mounting pressure on Apple to introduce a new AI offering, the company started exploring partnerships and ways to update tools like Siri, its voice assistant launched in 2011. Following Cook’s assurance to shareholders last month about Apple’s “significant investments” in artificial intelligence, Bloomberg reported that the company was close to finalizing a deal with OpenAI to integrate the startup’s technology into its devices.
Apple’s stock has surged in recent months as investors anticipated its upcoming unveilings. However, the company has faced challenges this year, including weakening global demand for its iPhone, as evidenced by another overall drop in revenue reported during an earnings call last month. Additionally, Apple has dealt with an antitrust lawsuit in the US, a canceled electric vehicle project, and a lack of public excitement for the pricey Vision Pro headset.
Meanwhile, other tech firms have witnessed an increase in their stock market value by emphasizing investments in artificial intelligence. Apple’s competitor Microsoft exceeded analysts’ expectations this year, experiencing growth in revenue and share price. AI chipmaker Nvidia reached a $3 trillion stock market valuation last week, surpassing Apple to become the world’s second most valuable public company.
Despite Apple’s hesitation to launch a flagship AI product, it has been steadily enhancing its artificial intelligence capabilities and investments over the years. The company has acquired multiple AI startups, reassigned employees to AI projects, and is establishing an AI research lab in Zurich.
Apple’s reluctance to join the AI arena may have stemmed from a desire to uphold its privacy-focused brand. Since AI heavily depends on collecting extensive data to train language learning models, the company’s collaboration with OpenAI raised privacy concerns among some critics. Elon Musk, for instance, expressed such concerns by stating that if the ChatGPT integration were to launch, Apple devices would be “banned from the premises” of his companies due to privacy worries.
However, during a press briefing following the event, Cook informed reporters that Apple intends to establish a “new standard for privacy in AI.” He mentioned that the company would release a paper on the same day as the keynote, outlining how it plans to “apply this technology in a responsible way.” Earlier in the day, during the demonstration, executives highlighted the measures Apple had implemented to safeguard users’ privacy when using the company’s AI. These measures include a dedicated set of servers to power the features without storing users’ personal information or on-device responses.
During an on-stage discussion, Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, stated that the majority of the “Apple Intelligence” features were built using the company’s own technology and proprietary foundational models. This implies that the ChatGPT partnership primarily extends to the search function and enhanced writing tools, while most AI tools were developed by Apple itself. Users will need to explicitly opt in before utilizing external AI models, such as those offered by OpenAI.
“For artificial intelligence to be truly valuable, it must be focused on you,” stated Federighi. “To achieve that, it needs to be seamlessly integrated into your experience at all times—drawing from context and understanding of your preferences. And to do so, there’s a significant responsibility to safeguard your privacy.”
Apple’s other privacy initiatives include a new hybrid cloud system called “private cloud compute.” The company aims to conduct the majority of AI processing on-device to enhance privacy. However, for more complex computing requiring the cloud, additional privacy measures will be implemented.
Despite these assurances, the pressure on Apple to deliver AI-driven services has compelled the company to make some “difficult decisions” regarding its longstanding commitment to privacy and security, according to Ben Wood, chief analyst and CMO at CCS Insight.
“Deploying a cloud-based AI solution presents an intriguing dilemma where Apple, like its competitors such as Google, has come to the realization that fully running today’s AI features on-device is not feasible. Certain elements must be offloaded to the cloud,” he said. “While Apple will emphasize its security credentials, this does signify a shift in approach.”