During today’s quarterly earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook made rare comments about the future of Apple products, citing the company’s investments in artificial intelligence.
Cook said Apple is “excited to share details of our ongoing efforts in this area later this year.” This comment confirms rumors that iOS 18, which will be announced at WWDC in June, will include comprehensive AI features.
Apple reportedly believes iOS 18 will be one of its biggest updates yet, driven primarily by tighter integration of AI technology across the system. A code reference for iOS 17.4 pointed out that Apple is testing its own large-scale language model, codenamed Ajax, alongside ChatGPT and others.
At the financial results conference, Tim Cook said: This includes AI, where we continue to spend a significant amount of time and effort and look forward to sharing details of our ongoing efforts in that area later this year. ”
The sharp remarks come as some argue that Apple is falling behind the likes of Microsoft and Google by not shipping generative AI capabilities in 2023, even as competitors have jumped on board with ChatGPT-like experiences. It appeared to be a reaction to industry and investor discourse.
Apple is expected to use AI to significantly revamp its voice assistant, Siri. Siri has become a laughing stock in recent years, but a new “Siri 2.0” reimplementation based on the latest generative AI large language models could change the story in a big way if successful.
The company also plans to roll out AI features across the iPhone operating system, including smart replies in Messages, playlist recommendations in Apple Music, and more.
As usual, Apple will announce the next major versions of iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS at its June developer conference. The OS will then ship in the fall. Cook’s comments today didn’t explicitly mention WWDC, but the “later this year” comment certainly fits with that timeline.
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