iOS 18 is rumored to include a number of new artificial intelligence features, and Apple is allegedly preparing iPhone 16 hardware updates at the same time with this one. A new report from Economic Daily News today says Apple's next family of processors – the M4 and A18 – will “significantly increase the number of onboard AI compute cores.”
iPhone 16 and artificial intelligence
The report explains:
This year, it will not only greatly enhance the AI processing power of M3 and A17 processors, but also the number of AI computing cores and performance of the new generation M4 and A18 processors will be greatly increased, and the transfer speed of AI applications across all product lines will be greatly improved.
This is almost certainly a reference to the iPhone's Neural Engine. As MacRumors notes, the Neural Engine has been a 16-core design since the iPhone 12 generation in 2020. However, over the years, the Neural Engine has become significantly faster, even though the number of cores has remained the same.
For example, Apple says the A17 Pro's neural engine is nearly twice as fast as the A16's neural engine, capable of processing up to 35 trillion operations per second.
9to5Mac's opinion
This story, of course, makes sense, but I… ;for now At this point, I'm skeptical about this given the source's mixed track record.
If the rumors that iOS 18 will include a wide range of artificial intelligence features are true, my guess would be that these features will work both at least on the 14th generation iPhone and probably several generations before that. According to rumors, a more powerful Neural Engine for the iPhone 16 will likely be created for future proofing and to improve the performance of iOS 18 features whenever possible.
Another interesting detail: both the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro models coming this year are expected to be equipped with a version of the A18 chip. Currently, the iPhone 15 uses the A16 chip, while the iPhone 15 Pro uses the A17 Pro chip. Will the more powerful Neural Engine be exclusive to the iPhone 16 Pro version of the A18 chip?
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