Apple’s new AI transforms user context into intelligence

During last year’s WWDC keynote address, Apple executives mentioned the phrase “AI” exactly zero times. Oh what a difference a year makes. At WWDC 2024 on Monday, Senior Vice President Software Engineering, Craig Federighi revealed Apple Intelligence, a new AI system that will impact and empower apps across the company’s lineup of devices.

“This is a moment we’ve been working towards for a long time,” Federighi said. “Apple intelligence is the personal intelligence system that puts powerful generative models, right at the core of your iPhone, iPad and Mac. It draws on your personal context to give you intelligence.”

While other companies in the burgeoning AI space have been scrambling to incorporate machine learning operations into their existing products and release them to the public as quickly as possible (with occasionally disastrous results), Apple has taken a far more measured approach towards developing and distributing its own AI capabilities.

“We continue to feel very bullish about our opportunity in generative AI and we’re making significant investments,” Cook told Reuters in a May interview. He was also quick to point out at Apple has spent $100 billion on AI R&D over the past five years.

Although AI wasn’t mentioned directly in last year’s keynote, the company did roll out a number of machine learning-enhanced features during WWDC 2023. Those include the Lock Screen’s live video, “ducking autocorrect,” the Journal app’s personalized writing prompts, the Health app’s myopia test, and the AirPods’ ability to tune playback settings based on prevailing environmental conditions, among others.

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