Worldwide Developers Conference

Privacy and Ai-on-device, everything we know about Apple's strategy

What the 'rumours' say so far about the 10 June developers' conference

by Alessandro Longo

29 May 2024

Meta Llama 3 e Google Gemini 1 5 Pro e quello che c'è da sapere sull Ai on device

4' min read

Meta Llama 3 e Google Gemini 1 5 Pro e quello che c'è da sapere sull Ai on device

A practical artificial intelligence, capable of changing our daily lives for the better - a little or a lot, we shall see -. This is the gist of what Apple will present, in the field of AI, at the Worldwide Developers Conference, according to various rumours that have emerged in international publications.

It is also a way for Apple to make up for lost ground on AI. It is the only big tech to have presented nothing on the subject so far, but its style, which it would confirm on this occasion, is to launch innovations that have reached a certain level of maturity and usefulness. So Apple chooses not to chase the other big techs in the deluge of announcements aimed at impressing, but opens up a different field. Another peculiarity: the AI will live (in its entirety or for the most part) on the user's device, to protect privacy but also to speed up processing and allow service in the absence of the Internet (a path that Microsoft has in fact already inaugurated in the personal computer sphere with the announcements of recent days).

That Apple will have a lot of AI in the Conference, then, there is little doubt.

Multiple clues lead to this conclusion: from statements by CEO Tim Cook, who promised big news in the field of AI by the end of the year, to clear references to the topic by chief marketing officer Greg Joswiak, who described the event as 'Absolutely Incredible' - a clear pun on AI (for the acronym).

Codenamed, Project Greymatter, a set of artificial intelligence tools that the company will integrate into core applications such as Safari, Photos and Notes. The push also includes operating system features such as improved notifications.

Meta Llama 3 e Google Gemini 1 5 Pro e quello che c'è da sapere sull Ai on device

Operating system with AI

AI would then enter the Mac, iPhone and iPad, i.e. iOS 18 and macOS 15. For the AI part on the device, the latest chips for iPhone, iPad and Mac will take care of it (it does not appear that Apple will be launching special chips at the moment, unlike Microsoft, but according to some rumours it could upgrade the ram part of iPhones for this purpose). The cloud component, on the other hand, will be powered by M2 Ultra chips located in Apple data centres. They have special security features with which Apple wants to reassure users that privacy and data integrity will be respected even in services that need to rely on the cloud for AI.

Some functions with AI

Among the most interesting features 'rumoured' are: transcription of voice memos, photo editing with artificial intelligence and faster and more reliable searches in the Spotlight function. Apple also aims to improve web search in Safari. It will also automatically suggest replies to e-mails and text messages.

AI will also give us summaries of missed notifications and individual text messages; of web pages, news articles, documents, notes and other media.

All functions, of course, that can already be found with Google and Microsoft or OpenAI and to some extent the new Samsung smartphones, but Apple as always aims to integrate everything well into the tools for (easy and convenient) mass use.

Many users will find it fun to be able to create customised emoji on the fly, which will be generated based on what they write. In short, we will always have new emoji, adapted to the context, to better express emotions and ideas.

Apple Music is supposed to have an AI-powered playlist generator, which will customise them based on user input ('I'm feeling sad', 'I need the charge to run', etc.). Spotify already does this, to be noted.

The personal assistant Siri will also receive an update. It will have a more natural-sounding voice and conversations based on various large language models used by Apple (but apparently made by third parties such as OpenAI and Google). There should also be a more advanced form of shortcuts with Siri, allowing users to automate complex or multi-step tasks using voice commands. Amazon is also working in this direction with Alexa, but companies will adopt this innovation with caution: 'hallucinations' about voice commands linked to shortcuts could lead to unpleasant consequences.

This advanced Siri should also land on the Apple Watch, for sports and fitness. Developer tools, including Xcode, will also receive artificial intelligence improvements.

A chatbot by Apple, however, is not in sight. The company has held talks with both Google and OpenAI to integrate their chatbots into iOS 18.

Only on 10 June will we know how many and which of these innovations will be realised in the immediate future. It is clear, however, that Apple will have a strong injection of artificial intelligence, for the first time. Always according to the values of usefulness, maturity, security and reliability, as is typical of this brand.