In the latest edition of Mark Gurman's newsletter for Bloomberg, he reports that Apple's long-awaited AI features for iOS 18 and its other operating systems may be released with a “beta” or “preview” designation.
Perhaps this is another sign that Apple was caught off guard by the AI revolution, and its planned features for this cycle are not yet reliable and good enough to launch an unqualified product without a beta.
While Apple is now seen as a laggard due to last week's disastrous rollout of artificial intelligence reviews in Google Search, perhaps more companies will benefit from slow and smart use of beta tags…
Apple is expected to take a multi-pronged approach, with in which some AI requests will be processed locally on the device, while others will be sent to Apple's cloud infrastructure for processing.
For each task, code running locally will determine whether the device can handle the request or whether it needs to be passed to the Apple backend. On-device processing may only be available for newer Apple devices, such as the last one or two generations of iPhone, iPad, and Mac. It is also reported that Apple is preparing a special miniature model of the device designed for the Apple Watch.
Julien's best comment
What exactly? All the other beta products released by various tech companies? Don't be fooled because they are promoting it as full-fledged products: they are all in beta testing.
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AI-powered features will reportedly include text message summarization and notifications, voice memo transcription, AI photo editing, automatic replies to suggested messages, and updates to Safari and Spotlight search. There are also plans to update Siri. Users will also apparently be able to create new emoji variations on the fly thanks to generative AI.
The big question is how Apple will present its new AI strategy, given that it has spent so many years debating the benefits . do everything on the device. But now, in the era of generative artificial intelligence, customers expect features that can currently only be achieved using a large server cloud.
Apple's cloud will run on Apple silicon chips on its servers, but it's still inherently less private than if the data never left your device.
iOS 18 will also work separately enable a chatbot powered by OpenAI ChatGPT technology. It seems Sam Altman may even appear during the WWDC video to announce the partnership. A partnership with Google for Gemini may still be in the works.
