Apple is about to add seriously useful tools to Apple Intelligence

Apple is close to introducing iOS 18.2, a major update that brings significant additions to  Apple Intelligence, its suite of generative AI (genAI) tools.

Highlights of this AI-tinged release include the integration of Siri with ChatGPT, along with new writing and imaging tools. The update is expected to ship as soon as Dec. 10.

Apple Intelligence supplements Apple’s existing machine-learning tools and relies on the company’s own genAI models. Introduced at Apple’s worldwide developer event in June, Apple Intelligence first arrived on Macs, iPhones, and iPads in October with the release of iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1, though additional features are being rolled out as they are ready.

Improved Writing Tools are coming

For most users, additions to Apple’s Writing Tools suite will make the biggest difference. Users will get access to an improved and enhanced Compose tool which can write or rewrite things for you. ChatGPT integration is also tightened in the release, including within writing tools. Another potentially very useful tool with this release is message categorization in Mail. This will automatically attempt to sort and prioritize your incoming mail and messages.

There’s AI elsewhere in this release, with tools including natural language search in Apple Music and Apple TV apps.

Siri gets ChatGPT, and AI for the rest of us

If you are using Apple Intelligence and it needs to hand off your request to ChatGPT for completion, you will be warned and given a chance to abandon the request rather than share your data there. It is important to note that under Apple’s arrangement with ChatGPT, neither Apple nor OpenAI stores the requests made, so there is some provision for privacy. (It would be wise to make sure use of ChatGPT is authorized under your company’s privacy and security policies.)

The ChatGPT integration is the big-ticket item in this release, but for many Apple users the even bigger draw will be support for Apple Intelligence in additional countries; Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, and the UK all gain local English support. (Apple’s superb AirPods Pro 2 Hearing Test feature will also be made available to nine additional countries, including France, Italy, Spain, UK, Romania, Cyprus, Czechia, and the UAE.)

What do I see?

Visual Intelligence is another great feature to try out. It lets you point your camera at your surroundings to get contextual information about where you are. You might point your camera at a restaurant to find opening hours or customer reviews. You can also use this tool to get phone numbers, addresses, or purchasing links for items in the view.

Imaging tools made available in this release include Image Playground and Genmoji. Image Playground will use genAI to create images based on your suggestions, or on pre-built suggestions Apple provides. It can also learn from your iMessage or Notes content to offer up imagery it “thinks” suitable for use in those apps. Image Wand will turn rough sketches into nicer images in Notes.

For fun, there is Genmoji. This is a genAI feature that creates custom emoji, including animated ones. The idea is that you can type in, or speak, a description of the emoji you want to use and select among those the system generates or tweak what it creates.

Apple Intelligence isn’t available to everyone. You must be running a Mac or iPad with an M-series processor to run these tools, or be equipped with an iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Mac, or any iPhone 16 model, and the most up-to-date version of the relevant operating system. Older iPhones will be unable to access Apple Intelligence features. All these new features should appear next week, even as we know for certain the company is developing more.

Eroding consumer resistance, one fun feature at a time

The big undercurrent to all of this is that by deploying these AI tools across its huge population of customers, Apple is also encouraging users to try out these tools. That process should eventually help erode consumer resistance to the fast-evolving technology. Apple becomes a trusted partner to show the potential of genAI in a deliberate and non-frightening way. The industry needs that, of course, given the steady emergence of somewhat less benign AI tools.

The rest will be history, eh, Siri?

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