Apple WWDC Keynote Recap, Apple Intelligence and More

Key Announcements

1. Apple Intelligence - Apple’s private generative AI tooling that can optionally be extended by ChatGPT, and later other models

2. Generative AI text and images - will be embedded throughout internal and 3rd party apps. Text allows for summarization, expansion, even tone conversion. Images can be created or edited, including generating new images to match your notes, or editing an existing image by removing unwanted background elements

3. Private Cloud Compute - Apple’s private data centers running only on Apple Silicon to allow devices to extend to the cloud without compromising privacy and security

4. Expanded SiriKit, especially the Intents API - Siri will be able to take actions across Apple and 3rd party apps

5. Personalization throughout - Apps on the homescreen, Control Center settings, lock screen shortcuts, Photos albums and more will be more customizable than ever before. Notably Control Center, Lock screen shortcuts, and the iPhone Action Button will support 3rd party integrations

6. Continuity - will enable Mac users to remotely use their iPhones

7. Shareplay - built in screen share and control sharing for iOS (so someone can help you use your device remotely)

8. Apple Pencil - handwritten math will offer the power of computation, and hand written notes will get the benefits of a word processor (like being able to add to the middle of a sentence, or move whole sections around)

9. Genmoji - Generative AI driven emojis you can create on the fly within your own context

This morning Apple kicked off their 5 day World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC), announcing (among other things), their long awaited entry into generative AI. The first hour or so covered the normal range of updates to Apple OS’s, and focused heavily on personalization and 3rd party integration, especially with Control Center.

Apple Intelligence

The next and final 40 minutes covered the generative AI announcement, Apple Intelligence, and culminated in the anticipated integration with ChatGPT. Though ChatGPT turned out not to be at the heart of Apple Intelligence, but rather an extension that can be called on if the user approves it on a case by case basis. And Apple says other models besides ChatGPT will be integrated in a similar way. 

At the heart of Apple intelligence is Apple’s own technology, in particular Apple Silicon, in phones, Macs, and even Apple’s data centers. One of their key differentiators is privacy. Your data stays on your devices, or goes temporarily to an Apple data center where even Apple can’t access it. This is something they claim will be verifiable by external security experts. At a time when Google and Microsoft are floundering a bit in cloud-centric privacy drama, Apple’s Private Cloud Compute may come as a breath of fresh air, especially to users (such as myself) skeptical of Windows 11. 

Their other key AI features involve AI generated text and images, as well as its ability to understand your context, and know your personal information. That last one pairs well with private compute, as the type of data AI needs to be useful is often also private in nature. But the feature I am most excited about is Actions, the ability of Apple Intelligence to use apps on my behalf. 

These generative AI features seem like they will be available for third-party apps, through an expanded SiriKit and Intents API. We should be hearing more about that shortly, in the upcoming Platforms State of the Union. Developers will be able to drop in generative AI workpads into their apps, and use Intents to register Actions that can be triggered by AI interactions. Finally there will be AI coding assistant tools in the Xcode ecosystem itself, so developers can leverage AI to speed up the development of software for Apple operating systems. 

Beta access to some of this stuff is coming in the summer, with the bulk of it releasing in the Fall. We’ll bring you more details and use cases as we gain access!