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The new release for iPhone, iPad and Mac devices is just a preview of what Apple Intelligence will look like when it is becomes available to the public later this year.
Apple has finally released Apple Intelligence, its set of new AI features, for its latest iPhone, iPad and Mac devices in the US.
Apple Intelligence is the iPhone maker’s effort to keep up in the generative AI race as it brings a host of upgrades to its devices such as an improved Siri voice assistant, a writing feature and an image generator, among other things.
First announced at the WWDC event last month, Apple Intelligence was released in the US as part of the developer beta in iOS 18.1 yesterday (30 July). It is also available in developer beta for iPad OS 18.1 and macOS Sequoia 15.1. It is currently available only to registered Apple developers who pay an annual subscription fee.
The latest update is just a preview of what Apple Intelligence will look like when it is released to the public later this year.
According to CNBC, it includes a new look for Siri along with performance improvements, better photos search, and AI-generated summaries for emails and messages.
The developer beta does not include image and emoji generation, automated photos clean-up, or, notably, an integration with OpenAI’s ChatGPT, as promised when the set of features was first announced.
Apple’s late but determined focus on AI has helped it significantly increase its market capitalisation recently, bringing the company’s value to record levels last month.
However, the company revealed plans to postpone the release of several upcoming AI features in the EU market last week because of issues it has with requirements stemming from the Digital Markets Act, which is an attempt to crack down on anti-competitive behaviour.
While Apple Intelligence is due to launch in the US later this year, it is not expected to launch in the EU until 2025.
“I find that very interesting that they say, ‘we will now deploy AI where we’re not obliged to enable competition’,” said EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager when she was asked for her thoughts on Apple’s postponement decision.
“I think that is the most stunning, open declaration that they know 100pc that this is another way of disabling competition where they have a stronghold already.”
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