We’ve been hearing for some time that iOS 18 will be the biggest overhaul of Apple‘s mobile operating system in its history, and over time, there’s been a steady trickle of leaks revealing what we can expect. Now, we just got another tasty morsel that lifts the veil a little more on iOS 18.
According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman in his Power On newsletter, Apple will bring to iOS 18 a range of powerful artificial intelligence (AI) tools that use a combination of on-device processing and dedicated servers equipped with Apple’s chips. This time, Gurman has some claims related to some of Apple’s most popular iOS apps.
Specifically, Gurman stated that Apple will “improve Siri’s voice capabilities, giving it a more conversational feel, and add features that help users with their daily lives, an approach it calls “proactive intelligence.”
We’ll have to wait to see if that “conversational feel” comes close to OpenAI’s recent demonstrations of its GPT-4o-powered voice assistant, which will be rolled out gradually this year. But apparently, that’s not the only AI update we can expect in iOS 18.
Apple’s “proactive intelligence” could also include features ranging from “automatic summary notifications” to “voice memo transcription” and “a quick synopsis of news articles.” According to Gurman, we can also expect slightly more subtle improvements to features like app suggestions and automatic calendar entries.
Not all improvements are expected to be class-leading. Gurman also claims that AI-based photo editing is also on the way for the Photos app, but it will pale in comparison to Adobe’s recent advancements. Also don’t expect anything like the incoming ‘Ask Photos’ tool in Google Photos.
Can Apple catch up?
Some of these features will be familiar to current iOS users: apps like Calendar and widgets like Smart Stack already use AI to suggest events and apps, respectively. But any further improvements will likely be welcomed by Apple fans.
Summary tools could be more important. According to Gurman’s report, it looks like they will lean more toward the kind of generative AI tools we’ve seen from rivals like Microsoft, whose Copilot AI is capable of performing similar tasks. The arrival of features like this could help Apple close the gap with its competitors, something the company recognizes it needs to do, according to Gurman, where executives have admitted internally that they are “catching up.”
That said, Gurman cautions that “I don’t expect Apple’s internal AI announcements to be as impressive as what OpenAI and Google have already shown.” Part of the problem is that Apple only hosts a major software event once a year (at its Worldwide Developers Conference in June), while rivals like OpenAI can release updates much more quickly.
Still, we know that iOS 18 is likely to be a big step forward for Apple, as the company is reportedly working with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT alongside its own internal and on-device AI tools. As the world goes crazy for artificial intelligence, Apple needs its next steps to succeed.
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