Apple Intelligence Announced: Apple Joins the AI Race
Apple's AI plans are taking shape at WWDC 2024.
Apple's WWDC is here, and AI is expected to be a big area of focus.
Apple Intelligence, the company's long-awaited deeper push into AI, made its debut at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday.
AI has played an important role in Apple products for years. But the widespread popularity of OpenAI's ChatGPT chatbot has shined a bigger spotlight on generative AI, or AI models trained on large swaths of data that can create content in response to prompts. As rivals such as Samsung, Google and Microsoft have been infusing the tech into their most important products, all eyes have been on Apple to see how the company plans to bring generative AI to its own products. At WWDC 2024, we're finally getting that answer.
Read more: WWDC 2024: How to Watch and What to Expect
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As part of Apple Intelligence, your iPhone will be able to summarize notifications. There are also writing tools for proofreading text across Mail, Notes, Safari and other apps.
Aside from language, Apple Intelligence offers image capabilities, too. You'll be able to create original images, such as an image of a friend surrounded by cake and balloons for their birthday. There are three styles for image generation: sketch, illustration and animation.
Apple Intelligence can also take actions on your behalf. You'll be able to ask it to pull up files from last week, play a podcast that a friend or loved one sent the other day and more.
Apple emphasized the importance of understanding personal context when delivering answers and carrying out tasks. It can understand multiple factors like traffic, your schedule and your contacts to help you understand whether you can make it to an event on time.
Apple's announcement follows similar moves from Samsung and Google earlier this year. Samsung announced a collection of new AI features called Galaxy AI for its Galaxy phones in January. Galaxy AI, which debuted on the Galaxy S24 series, includes tools that can translate phone calls in real time, erase and resize objects in photos and preview video clips in slow motion.
Google started 2024 by announcing Circle to Search, a feature for Android phones that makes it possible to launch a Google search just by circling or scribbling on a subject shown on screen. At its I/O conference last month, Google showed how its Gemini assistant will be able to understand more about the apps that are being used.
Apple also announced new software updates for all of its major platforms at WWDC, including new versions of iOS, MacOS, WatchOS, iPadOS and more. The company usually introduces its new iPhone and Apple Watch models in September.
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