It is common knowledge that Apple is currently concentrating on artificial intelligence; despite creating Siri early enough it did not manage to maintain the position in the AI arms’ war (you may or may not think this is bad) and seems not to have moved an inch towards the most recent generative AI trend. Every bit of this will probably be rectified with some software-related revelation during the WWDC that is happening next month. Many bold changes are expected in iOS 18
News came last weekend that some real, juicy details have been revealed. In his most recent edition of the Power On newsletter, leaker-analyst Mark Gurman from Bloomberg has made claims how Apple is going to make “bold changes” in its iOS operating system for the iPhone. He also explains the broad strategic shifts at the company and some specific features he thinks will appear this year on iPhones.
In terms of strategy, in this area Apple has always had a longstanding commitment to refrain from tracking the user by a large extent, and to carry out most of the processing related to Siri right in the device (Pellizarri et al., 2016). Actually, the absence of data is responsible for some of the troubles in this area because there is no information on which language models can learn(Jurgens and Stevens, 2018).
In theory, on-device computing helps to protect user data security better than off-device processing does because then requests details do not have to move between server farms or remain available to the staff of companies who may have been outsourced and it is hard to not face speed variations.
Gurman states that although becoming a priority would represent a major shift in company culture, the data mining must be transformed, saying that data processing will shift towards a cloud oriented model. He also mentioned that an update on data centers with more robust Mac chips is necessary so that they can support increased workload.”
“The move proves Apple’s realization of the need for evolution,” Gurman notes. “This includes enhancing Siri’s voice ability, making it sound more natural and introducing functionalities that assist in daily living.”
The AI-powered search is a case in point; Apple’s search effort did not take off so it is not in a position to have its search engine. All of these factors point to an imminent WWDC keynote littered with many lesser displays (pyrotechnics), which is expected to not show Apple as having caught up any closer with the AI race.