Newsroom
After nearly two years of anticipation, Apple has finally entered the artificial intelligence (AI) race.
"I am thrilled to introduce significant new intelligence capabilities that we hope will inspire developers, delight users, and make our platforms smarter and more useful than ever," said CEO Tim Cook at the Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC), where Apple unveiled its new AI features.
However, details later provided by the company during the keynote and on its website revealed that this technological leap is not for everyone. The AI capabilities will be available only to iPhone users with the two most powerful models—the 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max—and for this year, will be limited to users who speak and write in U.S. English.
The new Apple Intelligence system and the anticipated update to Siri will debut in the fall in a trial phase with the new iOS 18 operating system. According to El Pais, over 90% of current iPhone users will not be able to try them unless they purchase a new smartphone.
While Apple has not provided official figures, estimates suggest there are about 1.5 billion active iPhone users worldwide. Analysts predict the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max could reach up to 100 million users. This means Apple Intelligence would reach less than 7% of total iPhone users, and this percentage excludes all users outside the U.S. for now.
For those with the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max (although 24 iPhone models are compatible with iOS 18), Apple Intelligence will offer features such as document, note, audio, and call summaries, suggested message replies, text review, and style and tone correction. It will also include the creation of new emojis and images from scratch with simple instructions.
The updated digital assistant Siri will better understand requests, remember the history of a conversation with the user, and seek answers from ChatGPT for questions it cannot answer.
Beyond iPhones, Apple Intelligence and the new Siri will also be available on tablets and computers with Apple processors—M1 or newer. Practically, this will affect five of the 15 iPad models compatible with iPadOS 18 and 13 of the 18 Mac models compatible with macOS 15 Sequoia. Apple began selling Macs with Apple processors in 2020, iPads Pro in 2021, and iPads Air in 2022. All iPad mini and non-Pro/Air iPads without these processors will not receive the new intelligent features.
Meanwhile, AI will not extend to the mixed reality glasses Vision Pro, despite being one of Apple's most advanced devices, equipped with an M2 processor and ample capacity.
