Apple has revealed a host of new AI-powered features backed with an OpenAI partnership at WWDC’24, with CEO Tim Cook and other important executors making the grand reveal.

Updates:

These features include a new system called “Apple Intelligence“, a personal intelligence system that combines the power of generative models with users’ personal context. By integrating their system into the operating systems of Mac laptops, iPad tablets, and iPhones, Apple’s new AI offers GenAI tools that are designed to automate and personalize experiences.

Other upgrades include an overhaul of the virtual assistant Siri, which will now be capable hundreds of more tasks with the help of ChatGPT. Apple users will also be able to create their own emojis based on language prompts and generate summaries of emails in the mailbox via the tech giant’s technology.

Most importantly, Apple has indicated that their company will differentiate itself from tech rivals Microsoft and Google by putting “privacy” at the core of their AI experience.

Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, Craig Federighi, emphasized that their Apple Intelligence puts AI models “right at the core of your iPhone, iPad and Mac” and simultaneously “protects your privacy at every step”.

The upgrades will be available for free in Apple’s iOS 18 operating system, due for release later this year, although the full suite of features will only work on more recent models of the iPhone, iPad and Macbook.

Apple also announced an updated operating system for its Vision Pro headset. While it was previously only available in the US since its release in February, the virtual reality device will now also be available in China, Japan, Singapore, Australia, Canada, France, and the United Kingdom within the next two months.

Partnership with OpenAI:

During the keynote, Apple has officially confirmed its partnership with OpenAI. This dynamic new collaboration will bring ChatGPT technology to Siri, which will function as an AI chatbot. Users can access ChatGPT’s capabilities on Apple devices through iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia by later this year.

Apple has assured users that their IP address will be hidden and that OpenAI will not store requests made through Siri. Nevertheless, ChatGPT’s data-use policies will apply when users connect their accounts.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman took to social media to reveal that he was “very happy” to be partnering with Apple to integrate ChatGPT into their various products.

However, billionaire Elon Musk, the founder of OpenAI’s tech rival xAI, expressed anger for the partnership, claiming that could not account for user data once it was shared with OpenAI and would be “selling you down the river”.

The impact of this new partnership will make its effects felt within the next few months.