As technology innovates faster than we can process, the race to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) in our everyday devices has been fast and chaotic at times. With stories of AI chatbots generating wildly inaccurate information and tech giants struggling to deal with the public fallout of excessive AI ambitions, Apple is taking a sharp pivot with the latest iOS update. Because this is how APPLE Intelligence, debuted with the release of iOS 18 in 2024, will revolutionise expectations and emphasise practicality in integrating AI.
Unlike its rivals, who stumble in their rush to get AI features out the door, Apple is heading for a place of simplicity and ease of use, now dubbed ‘APPLE Intelligence’. That circumspection is clearly visible in the little AI improvements in the iOS 18 upgrade – and in the care the company has taken to avoid Google’s pitfalls. There’s nothing superhuman about APPLE Intelligence. It’s just about making the wheel turn more smoothly as you go about your daily life.
Users will find APPLE Intelligence building into apps and features they already use. This is not Apple trying to make the slickest AI on the market, but AI that just makes your life a little more pleasant, with things like smarter notifications, better photo editing, and even an intelligent ‘Do Not Disturb’ mode. Apple has shown that it wants to hone in on areas where there is a clear, simple benefit to applying AI, without freaking users out. Tools for summarising text, proofreading or doing smart photo edits are all clear value propositions.
Unlike the AI chatbots that Google and Facebook are producing, Apple’s obligatory focus on solving very specific and (hopefully) solvable problems is paying off in huge ways. The clarity of purpose lends APPLE’s AI-powered improvements focused on solving seemingly small problems with big outcomes (such as making Maps less of a nightmare to use) a level of reassurance that most users are demanding right now (though forgetting when any mistake is made). By avoiding the trappings of generalised, open-ended AI, APPLE Intelligence now foregrounds safety (as well as usefulness), both of which are key requirements for any new technology.
Apple intelligently walks a very fine line between assisted and subsumed creativity. With writing, summarising and quick responses, APPLE Intelligence is a handy copilot. For more free-form creative writing, Apple leaves the 'AI take’ on the table, where it ought to be, along with any broader AI discussion. Likewise with image creation: Apple puts a very competent guardrail around the ability of its AI, which is quite good, freeing its creative user base from the malevolent or stupid, or both, effects of being subsumed.
Instead of putting AI at the centre of how users interact with new devices, APPLE Intelligence largely stays in the background. It’s supposed to be the computer that helps you by smoothing your experience rather than demanding centre stage. That’s part of the deep logic of Apple’s approach to AI, which emphasises enhancement rather than replacement, and which certainly reflects its broader commitment to human-centred design.
APPLE Intelligence might not be the world’s most exciting AI – actually, it’s probably the least exciting – and that bears noting as well. In this long-arc view of AI history, the story of Apple’s machines will come across as a tale driven less by innovation than by practicality – a long, slow march of minor improvements that delivered ‘AI’ to us without craziness getting in the way. That’s a strategy that might yet wind up being much more likely to succeed. As AI hype and hyperbole continue to saturate the world, the real wonders of the technology will continue to fly beneath the radar of those who seek its greatness. APPLE Intelligence will simply do What is, with those computers we use every day.
At its core, the APPLE Intelligence way of approaching AI is an articulation of Apple’s broader philosophy concerning life with technology: it should augment, not further complicate or bog down. By designing their AI features with care, and by implementing them in a thoughtful, controlled manner, Apple isn’t just selling products – they are selling an experience, one that’s reliable, intuitive and that can become part of the background of everyday life. APPLE Intelligence is going into beta release this fall; it is a vision of AI that’s about substance, not spectacle, and in the midst of an era exhaustingly enamoured with the future of AI, Apple is clearly reminding us what’s important right now: the present. It’s one practical AI at a time.
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