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Apple’s first wave of AI features won’t set the world on fire, but it’s a start

Vaseline October 28, 2024

Apple (AAPL) is finally releasing its first wave of Apple Intelligence features for the iPhone, iPad and Mac. It’s a huge moment for the world’s most valuable company by market cap, and some Wall Street analysts are banking on the platform to help accelerate iPhone sales.

It’s also a big gamble for Apple. The company is pushing the software to some of its key products. If it doesn’t hit the mark, it could worsen users’ perception of Apple Intelligence’s progress.

The first version of Apple Intelligence – available with iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1 and macOS 15 – includes notifications and email summaries, priority email alerts in Mail, text authoring tools, natural language search and image editing in Photos, and an improved version of Siri.

Probably the most important thing to keep in mind when it comes to Apple Intelligence is that it won’t be available to all iPhone users. The software only works on the iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max and iPhone 16. So if you have an older iPhone, you’re out of luck. That’s why analysts think the platform will spark a rush of iPhone upgrades. If most Apple users can’t use Apple Intelligence, the thinking goes, they will want to buy newer models to access it.

And that’s helped Apple’s shares rise 38% over the past six months. That makes the platform’s success a must for Apple.

I’ve been using a beta of the first wave of Apple Intelligence features for a few weeks now, and while I don’t think these are the kind of upgrades that will make consumers rush out the door to buy the latest iPhone, they help pave the way for the company’s next wave of AI updates. That includes ChatGPT integration, the debut of Apple’s Visual Intelligence, and more.

But it will be some time before these capabilities are available to the general public, as developers are only now getting their hands on them through Apple’s latest developer beta. In the meantime, here’s what to expect when you download the latest version of iOS and finally start using Apple Intelligence.

Notification summaries, the most useful tool in Apple Intelligence’s early offering, make the endless stream of texts, Slacks, and news updates just a little easier to deal with. Summaries use AI to summarize your notifications into bite-sized pieces of information, giving you the most important part of your messages you need to know, and it’s proven to be my favorite part of Apple Intelligence.

Text message summaries extract the most relevant information from your texts. These normally contain summaries of texts that are relatively long or complex, so don’t expect to get its own summary every time you go back and forth.

Apple Intelligence's notification summaries make it easier to deal with the flood of updates and messages you receive throughout the day. (Image: Howley) — Apple Intelligence’s notification summaries make it easier to deal with the flood of updates and messages you receive throughout the day. (Image: Howley) · Howley

The Mail app also gets email summaries, which can help when you’re scrolling through hundreds of messages after getting back to the office after a day off. Apple Intelligence’s Priority Emails, another Mail feature, automatically pulls out the messages you think are most urgent and places them in a Priority Messages box at the top of the screen. These are usually emails that contain current information or requests, but Priority Messages doesn’t pull in important emails from sources I’m waiting on, which is usually my real priority.

Apple Intelligence’s writing tools features can be found throughout the operating system, including third-party apps, and can make your writing sound friendlier, more professional, and more concise, list it, summarize it, highlight key points, or make a note of it to make. table.

Apple Intelligence's writing tools let you rephrase, summarize, and proofread everything from emails to text messages. (Image: Howley) — Apple Intelligence’s writing tools let you rephrase, summarize, and proofread everything from emails to text messages. (Image: Howley) · Howley

Overall, Writing Tools does an excellent job at all of these tasks, but because it’s powered by generative AI, there are bound to be cases where Apple Intelligence doesn’t quite give you what you were hoping for. I haven’t encountered any issues with it yet, but once millions of people use the feature, I’m sure we’ll see some pop up here and there.

Apple has also added Apple Intelligence capabilities to the Photos app. The one that will get the most attention initially will probably be Clean Up. Clean Up, an AI-powered editing tool, allows you to remove unwanted people or items from your photos. However, don’t expect to be able to crop your ex out of your vacation photos. Cleaning is intended to help you remove smaller objects, such as a person walking across the background of your group photo.

Natural Language Search in Photos is exactly what you think it is: the ability to search for photos and videos using phrases and phrases instead of just dates and locations. I typed in pictures of “John and Daniel drinking” and quickly got pictures of my friend John and I throwing back a few adult drinks.

Apple's Natural Language Search for Photos makes it easier to search for your favorite images without having to scroll through your entire photo and video collection. (Image: Howley) — Apple’s Natural Language Search for Photos makes it easier to search for your favorite images without having to scroll through your entire photo and video collection. (Image: Howley) · Howley

As Apple improves the search feature over time, I imagine this will finally put an end to those times when you want to show someone a photo from your vacation years ago but instead have to spend an awkward amount of time looking through your phone scrolling before you just give up altogether.

Siri is also getting an upgrade in the first version of Apple Intelligence, although it is not the smarter version of Siri with ChatGPT. This version lets you use Siri without it taking up your entire screen of responses, and uses a slick new interface that makes the edges of your screen glow.

Siri also recognizes when you fumble your words and need to restart a sentence without getting confused, and can answer product knowledge questions about your Apple device, such as “How do I scan documents with my phone?” That in itself will be useful for users who aren’t as familiar with some of the iPhone’s more niche capabilities.

You can also finally type questions to Siri by double-tapping the bottom of the screen. It’s a nice addition, since sometimes you don’t want or can’t say your questions out loud to Siri.

I appreciate the new features, especially typing to Siri, but it’s still not as smart as I’d hoped. That will hopefully happen when Apple adds ChatGPT to the software.

One of the concerns surrounding the use of generative AI is the way user data is processed. On-device processing ensures that your data never leaves your device and that any requests or commands you give to AI apps are processed using your phone’s own processor. Cloud processing means that your data is uploaded to the cloud and processed on a company’s servers before being sent back to your device.

Apple says Apple Intelligence uses a mix of on-device and cloud processing, depending on the complexity of your requests. But Apple has also staked its reputation on user privacy and security. To address this, the company has set up so-called Private Cloud Compute servers.

Apple says that data sent to its Private Cloud Compute servers is never stored or shared with the company and it is not used to train models, only to respond to requests. Apple also promises to allow independent experts to audit the code of its servers to ensure that the company is not using its users’ data for anything other than its stated needs.

Overall, Apple’s first wave of Apple Intelligence features are a solid starting point for the company’s AI ambitions. And while photo editing and text tools are useful, notification summaries will certainly stand out the most. Now it’s up to Apple to keep delivering.