AI will take center stage in Apple’s upcoming operating systems, and per Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, an array of new features will be demoed at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) next month.
In his latest “Power On” newsletter, Gurman noted that Apple will apparently use AI to perform the following tasks in the operating systems:
- Photo retouching.
- Voice memo transcription.
- Suggested replies to emails and messages.
- Auto-generated emojis based on the content of a user’s messages, providing all-new emoji for any occasion beyond the existing catalog.
- Improved Safari web search.
- Faster and more reliable searches in Spotlight.
- More natural interactions with Siri.
- More advanced version of Siri designed for the Apple Watch, optimized for “on-the-go tasks.”
- Smart recaps of missed notifications and individual messages, web pages, news articles, documents, notes, and more.
- Developer tools for Xcode.
- AI features that require less processing power will run entirely on-device, but more demanding tools will operate via the cloud. Apple will apparently tout the privacy advantages of this plan.
Apple is also said to be marketing many of its forthcoming AI tools as a “preview” that could appear in beta versions of iOS 18 prior to its official launch in September. The previews could help express the idea that the technology is unfinished and a work in progress.
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.