We interact all day with rectangles—in our hands, on tables, and on walls. And as we type, listen, watch, scroll and click, the makers of these devices are engaged in a never-ending battle for dominance. The shapes may be the same, but the software, the invisible digital essence that flows through them, is not. For much of the past decade, software has been one of the most obvious differentiating factors between devices, but in the past six months, AI capabilities have begun to matter most. It’s no longer about how you can touch them but how you can talk to them.
This was evident this week at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in Cupertino, California, when the company announced dozens of new AI features, all part of a product series called Apple is smartand keep up with competitors. Although Google has made many mistakes when implementing AI, phones are not one of them. It was one of the first to launch phones with AI features in October 2023, through the company’s flagship Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro. These devices run Google’s Gemini Nano AI, which enables a variety of AI processing features directly on the phone, including AI-generated voice recording summaries and suggested responses in messaging apps as well as a range of object recognition tools for visual search. Since then, AI-enabled smartphones such as the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra and Xiaomi 14 Ultra have been launched.
On Monday, Apple introduced a greatly improved Siri (if anyone needs an upgrade and a spa day, it’s Siri) that can engage in free-form conversations and handle queries Complex with many nuances. Additionally, the company announced Writing Tools, which can summarize text and even give you a shortened version of a long string of groupings (thank God!). You can also create Genmoji, which are customized emojis that sound fun but will probably make a lot of people text back and ask, “What the heck?” (Thankfully, Apple’s AI will be able to tell you.) The company also partners with OpenAI for some more advanced questions, allowing Siri to tap into ChatGPT’s expertise to perform tasks more complex like answering questions about photos or documents or helping Siri answer questions it doesn’t know the answer to. (More on this partnership later.)
Apparently, investors on Wall Street, who are excited by anything with this term. artificial intelligence in there, revel in the latest updates from Apple. For a brief moment on Wednesday after the announcement, Apple overtook Microsoft to become the world’s most valuable company, a position Apple once held but lost to Microsoft as it also got a boost in AI after an obsessive focus on integrating artificial intelligence into its products. Today, a hardware innovation wouldn’t generate the same enthusiasm from investors—or perhaps even consumers.
Case in point: earlier this month, I tried out Apple’s new 12.9-inch iPad. I’ve been meaning to write about Apple’s latest rectangle and offer some analysis of what it means for the company. And while it’s great to work on a smaller, thinner, lighter, faster iPad, I really feel overwhelmed by hardware updates because, ultimately, it’s about how the software integrates with other devices. that update will make one device better than another. other. At WWDC, Apple announced several new features under the name Apple Intelligence for iPadOS 18. They include improved Siri that can engage in more natural conversations and handle complex queries directly on the latest iPad, new writing tools let users rewrite and proofread text, and a new Math Notes feature turns iPad into an interactive blackboard so it can solve simple or complex problems with live updates. Not to mention Smart Script in Notes, which allows users to scribble their work in their own handwriting, which is then converted into actual text—though it’s still TBD if Apple’s AI can read it my chicken-headed handwriting.
Not everyone is happy with Apple’s announcement this week. The internet is filled with Apple-obsessed people, people complain (yes, there are people on the Internet complaining about things they have nothing to do with) that the new AI features announced by the company are the best, that the name Apple Intelligence is “cringe,” and the interface of the graphic is “No inspiration.” But Apple’s foray into AI is a much-needed counterweight to Silicon Valley’s frenetic pace of development. While other tech giants are frantically rolling out AI innovations without seemingly fully considering the consequences (ahem, OpenAI), Apple is taking a slow and methodical approach very necessary. It’s getting “annoying”, “uninspiring” and “boring”, but honestly, that’s what the industry needs right now: a focus on thoughtful, implemented innovations good instead of rushing to be first (ahem, Microsoft), even at the risk of harming society (ahem, OpenAI and Microsoft).
Tony Fadell, who has been at Apple for most of his career and is the man behind the iPhone and iPod, record that Apple is taking “baby steps” in the field of AI and that is exactly what they should do. “AI LLMs today [large language models] most are glorified demos for really cool apps. They are turning into a commodity because they are overfunded by FOMO-driven VCs who don’t really understand the technological constraints driving real-world application requirements,” Fadell wrote on X. “Hallucinations are a real problem and there is no fundamental way to get rid of them. Customer expectations are much higher than what can be delivered today.”
