Apple Unveils New Features and Operating Systems with Enhanced AI Integration

Apple made a significant leap in artificial intelligence by introducing Apple Intelligence for its devices, including the iPhone, and a much smarter Siri that now integrates OpenAI’s ChatGPT. This AI enhancement will be operational on iOS 18 for iPhones, iPadOS 18 for iPads, and the upcoming macOS Sequoia. These innovations were showcased at Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference in Cupertino, California. Developer versions were released on the same day, with public previews slated for next month and final versions expected this fall.

Apple is collaborating with OpenAI to power Siri with Apple Intelligence, enabling personalized Genmoji—AI-generated emojis. Siri, which has been around since 2011, now boasts enhanced capabilities such as answering personalized questions about schedules, emails, and flight details. Users can create a Genmoji directly from the keyboard by typing a description. Other AI features include recalling photos taken years ago and answering detailed questions about the weather, news, or trivia. Over time, Siri will learn user preferences and respond accordingly. Additionally, users can transform photos into stylized, cartoonish versions with the new OS releases.

Apple’s new Writing Tools also leverage AI, with most AI functions conducted on the device rather than on a cloud server. “As we look to build in these incredible new capabilities, we want to ensure that the outcome reflects the principles at the core of our products. It has to be powerful enough to help with the things that matter most to you,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook during the keynote. “It has to be intuitive and easy to use. It has to be deeply integrated into your product experiences. Most importantly, it has to understand you and be grounded in your personal context, like your routine, your relationships, your communications, and more. And, of course, it has to be built with privacy, from the ground up.”

Apple has been slower to adopt AI compared to companies like Microsoft, which integrated OpenAI with its Bing search engine, and Google, which developed the AI model Bard. Despite this, Apple remains the world’s second-largest company by market capitalization, nearly $3 trillion.

Additional innovations announced during Apple’s event include:

iOS 18: New controls and personalization, icons for Dark Mode, a new tint color that complements wallpaper, and a redesigned control center accessible from the lock screen.

iPadOS 18: Features a floating tab bar and automatic sidebars for better screen usage. Users can write with the Apple Pencil to solve mathematical problems automatically.

Passwords App: Available on iPhone, iPad, Vision Pro, Mac, and Windows, this app stores passwords with verification codes, app passwords, Wi-Fi passwords, shared passwords, Passkeys, and more.

Safari: The browser will have AI-powered highlights to extract information from webpages.

Watch OS: Includes a training mode to track workout intensity and duration effects on the body over time.

AirPods: Can detect head motions to answer or reject calls. AirPods Pro will isolate the user’s voice in noisy environments.

tvOS: New feature provides information about what’s playing on the TV, visible on the iPhone, with improved subtitles for spoken audio.