Is Apple Intelligence the AI for the Rest of Us

Yesterday, Apple officially entered the AI era with the introduction of Apple Intelligence.

Launching in beta "this fall," Apple Intelligence is a system-wide enhancement that adds deep system-wide AI integration. Apple promises its privacy-focused AI integration will "create language and images, take action across apps, and draw from personal context to simplify and accelerate everyday tasks."

Honestly, most of the features seemed pretty great. Apple Intelligence might be the boring AI I've been longing for. A system-integrated approach has access to my email, text messages, photos, calendar, and more to find things specific and unique to me. This seems incredibly useful and why Apple is likely using the tagline, "AI for the rest of us."

All of this is well and good, but system-level generative AI features are also coming to each Apple OS later this year.

With brand-new systemwide Writing Tools built into iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia, users can rewrite, proofread, and summarize text nearly everywhere they write, including Mail, Notes, Pages, and third-party apps.

While these features are not yet available, even in the betas released to developers yesterday, Apple provided details and screenshots in yesterday's announcements.

The Writing Tools integration offers a popup anywhere you enter text. On first look, the tool seems to directly take on Grammarly, giving users the ability to "proofread" content or rewrite it based on different tones or styles. Frankly, I love Grammarly, but I would love a system integration that doesn't send everything I type in every single app to a third party.

Noticeably missing from the Writing Tools feature is create. I like this approach to encourage original writing that is then cleaned up, polished, or summarized. This is a welcome approach to AI.

However, Apple then announced a partnership with OpenAI and went on to welcome deep integration with other LLM models of choice. Essentially, users will be able to enhance Apple Intelligence with third-party AI models that extend the capabilities even further. Doing so unlocks a new "create" mode in the Writing Tools. In any app. All the time. This integration with Open AI will be free and availalbe to anyone choosing to turn it on.

This is where things get a little dicey for me.

I don't think generative AI has a place in the creative world. It's dangerous and has largely been used to cause harm. While these tools are already available to everyone in a separate app or website, built-in access to text and image generation will increase their usage. Especially if the experience is as smooth as Apple's presentation made it seem.

I do applaud Apple's careful restriction of image generation styles. Apple's Image Playground feature will limit images to Animation, Illustration, and Sketch, which is a smart way to avoid creating believable images. That is likely an intentional way to avoid vectors for harm.

There is also one very large astrict next to all of this. While Apple has sold hundreds of millions of devices, the Apple Intelligence features will be largely limited.

Apple Intelligence is free for users, and will be available in beta as part of iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia this fall in U.S. English. Some features, software platforms, and additional languages will come over the course of the next year. Apple Intelligence will be available on iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, and iPad and Mac with M1 and later, with Siri and device language set to U.S. English.

Understandably, these features will be limited to the very latest and most powerful devices. It also means that adoption will be slower, at least initially. Obviously, Apple's goal is to make these features extremely attractive and entice users to upgrade their devices.

Will the amount of AI-generated slop already taking over the internet skyrocket, or will Apple's "personalized" approach offer a more nuanced and boring take on AI? We'll have to see how this plays out in the coming months.

One thing for me is certain: Apple's presentation is the most realistic look at generative AI I've seen from any company to date. Which, given Apple's track record, is not surprising.