Apple’s iOS 18 will be announced at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June, but the rumor mill is already in full swing. While nothing has been confirmed by Apple yet, it seems iOS 18 is going to be very heavily impacted by developments in generative AI.
It might seem like you only just upgraded to iOS 17, but make no mistake, iOS 18 is coming this year. Without further ado, here’s what you need to know about iOS 18 ahead of its launch in a few months’ time.
iOS 18 Will Be AI-Enhanced
It’s no surprise given the rise of ChatGPT in 2023, but Apple will be adding generative AI tools to its iOS 18 update this year, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.
In his Power On newsletter, Gurman described how the generative AI tools to be announced at WWDC 2024 will include enhancements to the iPhone maker’s voice assistant, Siri.
This is in addition to auto-completion and auto-summarizing features, which could be added to Apple apps in iOS 18, powered by the iPhone maker’s Ajax large language model.
AI would enhance many other Apple services including Apple Music where it could help create playlists. It could also help with troubleshooting issues.
While Gurman is confident AI features will start to roll out in iOS 18, this is just the beginning, with many of these unlikely to see the light of day until 2025.
However, Gurman says, Apple is way behind its competitors in the AI space:
“Starting with generative AI, Apple’s tools — when they launch — will come nearly two years after ChatGPT began to take the world by storm, about a year after Amazon announced its revamped Alexa and about a year and a half after Microsoft and Google debuted their new services. Even for Apple, that’s quite a miss.
“Long story short: Apple is way behind in AI and it’s a major risk for a company that considers itself the top innovator in consumer technology.”
How AI In iOS 18 Will Impact You
AI is everywhere at the moment and the trend isn’t showing any signs of dying down. “Seemingly, if products don’t arrive packed with AI, there is the risk some users will think they are falling behind the curve,” says Jake Moore, global cybersecurity advisor at ESET.
While Moore concedes it is not always advantageous to add AI capability, time saving features such as auto summarising are bound to be popular, he says.
AI certainly isn’t new technology and as Guman points out, Apple is late to the table with the features only starting to launch with iOS 18. However, when AI based iPhone features do launch, it’s important to take privacy into account.
AI chatbots, for example, collect large amounts of data, so you’ll need to reassess any Siri privacy features you have enabled.
On a positive note, Apple bases its marketing around the iPhone’s security and privacy, so it’s likely the firm will release AI in iOS 18 along with a bunch of new features to control it.
