Update, February 2, 2024:
Apple CEO Tim Cook confirmed during the company's most recent quarterly earnings call that generative AI for iOS will be introduced "later this year." Cook didn't get more specific, but said he's "incredibly excited" about Apple's work in this area.
Apple may be planning a deeper integration of generative AI into image processing directly on the smartphone, as Google and Samsung are currently demonstrating. Other applications could include productivity apps like Pages and Keynote, which could be enhanced with language models.
We are obviously looking forward to tomorrow. This has been multiple years of efforts from so many people across Apple. And really, it took a whole of company effort to bring it to this far.
Tim Cook
John Giannandrea, former head of AI at Google and now senior vice president of machine learning and AI strategy at Apple, saw Apple in a strong position to lead the AI market as early as 2020.
He argued that Apple is a one-stop shop, which is an advantage for developing AI applications. AI will change every aspect of Apple's operating systems in the future.
John Giannandrea moved from Google to Apple in April 2018, where he took over as the head of machine learning and artificial intelligence strategy.
Original article from January 30, 2024:
Siri gets a major upgrade with generative AI in upcoming iOS 18 update
Apple plans to integrate generative AI capabilities into iOS 18 to improve Siri, iMessage, and other apps, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
It could be one of the biggest software updates in the company's history, Gurman said. The introduction of generative AI in iOS 18 could help Apple keep up with competition from other AI assistants, such as Google's Bard, OpenAI's ChatGPT, and Microsoft's Copilot.
Samsung is also investing heavily in AI for its upcoming smartphones. Gurman has previously reported that Apple is working on its LLM called "Ajax" and an internal chatbot called Apple GPT. The release of iOS 18 is expected in September.