The dawn of generative AI started almost two years ago when OpenAI first delivered ChatGPT, and all those years ago, Apple was the one Big Tech shut-in that did not release any of its developments behind the technology. Among the firsts were Google with the Bard AI chatbot, and Microsoft's Bing AI which took advantage of its partnership with OpenAI and got the GPT LLM, while others like Amazon, Meta, and more followed suit.
It was only last June during the WWDC 2024 when Apple confirmed that it has worked on its artificial intelligence model which is now known as 'Apple Intelligence,' and like all of these Big Tech, it is rolling out the feature gradually.
Apple Intelligence is 'At Least Two Years Behind' Says Analyst
With all those being said, Bloomberg's renowned Apple analyst, Mark Gurman, recently shared in his Power On newsletter that the Cupertino tech giant is 'at least two years behind' on its AI developments. While Gurman did not relate Apple's lateness to the two-year advantage that OpenAI had, the current capabilities and power of artificial intelligence among other developers are already advanced.
However, Gurman believes that this is all part of Apple's strategy for its technology, particularly when making it available to users, as it focuses more on what its development team dictates regarding the readiness of its products.
This was further corroborated by none other than Apple's senior vice president of software engineering, Craig Federighi, who recently revealed that Apple's AI delays truly put the company behind. This is because the company allows its developers to give their go signal if they feel like their developments are ready.
Furthermore, Federighi regarded that Apple's take on generative AI focused on integrating more of the experience and making it personal to each user, instead of offering a chatbot that is applicable for all. Additionally, the company also puts significant focus on privacy and security as chatbots are notorious for training on user data and have had several run-ins with the law regarding their data access.
Future Apple Intelligence Updates to Focus on Features Roll-Out
Despite this slow rollout, Apple is still determined to share Apple Intelligence with the world with the eligible devices that can access it, but it will focus on gradually releasing new features and experiences to the public.
Apart from this, Apple has also integrated one of the largest AI chatbots in the world in partnership with OpenAI, as ChatGPT which runs GPT-4o, is coming as an integration to Siri, and will be available as one of the AI experiences to access, apart from Apple Intelligence.
Apple Intelligence and Its Present Capabilities
Currently, Apple Intelligence is rolling out to users who have joined the beta experience of iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS 15.1, with those who only on-boarded during the public release being put on a waitlist.
The recent iOS 18.1 release is now giving users the first taste of what Apple Intelligence is about, and this includes the early generative writing tools that users were promised, privacy measures, Siri's revamp, and more contextual learning features to offer.
Additionally, the other anticipated features like Image Playground, Clean Up, and AI image generation are also available now, but the more advanced features like Genmoji and more are yet to make their debut on the current operating system versions.
