Apple has started rolling out iOS 18.2, which includes the long-awaited integration of ChatGPT with Siri. It is available as of today for iPhone, iPad, and Mac, though only for the latest hardware. On iPhone, you’ll need an iPhone 15 Pro or later to access Apple Intelligence, which is the name of Apple’s new set of AI integrations.
Users of the latest versions of iOS already have access to some early AI features, such as the ability to rewrite emails and get a summary of notifications. For example, if a user receives a flurry of text messages from a friend, Apple will try to condense them into one concise message. This feature has been the cause of some ridicule for Apple because of the insensitive way it summarized the breakup of a relationship with a person. It can also summarize emails, which can be useful for sorting.
iOS 18.2 also introduces Genmoji, which allows users to create their own emoji by simply writing a description. Early beta users called them cartoonish and superficial.
Other AI features include a focus mode that allows users to turn off notifications but tries to intelligently recognize important ones – such as a text message from a child – and push them through. Users can also edit their photos to remove objects.
Integration with ChatGPT is triggered when a user asks Siri a complex question that Siri is not known to be able to answer. When Siri wants to send a question to ChatGPT, it will first ask the user for permission to do so. Apple says that OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, will not store user requests.
Using ChatGPT through Siri does not cost any money, although users can pay for ChatGPT Plus or Pro tiers through Apple if they want to access the chatbot’s full capabilities. Neither Apple nor OpenAI has ever spoken about whether any money changes hands. If users subscribe to the premium level of ChatGPT via iOS, Apple receives 30% of the royalties, which seems like a lot of money.
Anyone who has ever used ChatGPT or other models knows that the problem of hallucinations (false responses) remains a detrimental one. It is uncharacteristic for Apple to release an unfinished technology with such fanfare, especially since it has no control over ChatGPT’s performance, which is constantly changing as OpenAI refines its models (i.e., users often feel that the chatbot has become “dumber”). But Apple is pushing the services hard to sell more devices, as iPhones last longer and customers replace them less often. The goal is to convince the more than one billion iPhone users that they need these new features. Apple is developing its own internal artificial intelligence for many of these features and will likely want to have more control over how it works in the future.
It is interesting to note that with more than 2 billion active devices in its ecosystem, Apple is probably in the best position to introduce new AI products to the general public. While ChatGPT is the best known brand in the AI space today, its 300 million active users pale in comparison to the numbers Apple could reach with Apple Intelligence. Many “normal” people still don’t use AI chatbots, and this could change. Potentially for the worse, if people start relying on unreliable information from their phones.
At least aside from ChatGPT, the rest of Apple’s AI integrations have obvious practical benefits. Other companies, such as Google, are introducing “agents” that can perform tasks, such as navigating the Internet, for users, which may have more potential than chatbots that are poorly factual.
Apple feels like it lacks foresight today as it rides the AI bandwagon after failing to find a market for Vision Pro and canceling its car project. Let’s hope this project works out in the company’s favor. The company is reportedly investing heavily in the development of new server chips dedicated to AI to cope with the intense computing demands of all these new features.
