Top 5 AI announcements at WWDC 2024
WWDC, Apple’s annual developer conference, took place this week. In the previous article, we looked at the forecast of announcements that are expected this year – in particular regarding the introduction of AI functions into Apple products. Now that the conference has already ended, we can discuss what kind of AI-based innovations users can expect in the near future.
Updated Siri
In the upcoming iOS 18, Siri will become more advanced thanks to a new suite of Apple Intelligence AI tools. In particular, it will be able to better understand human speech, cope with hesitations, stutters and other peculiarities, and in general recognize the context of requests more correctly. You can also type the question in.
In addition, Siri will be able to recognize actions on the screen and perform various tasks by switching between applications – for example, adding brightness to a photo and then adding that photo to another application; extract information from a document and enter it into a table; write a summary of the email or rewrite the composed text.
However, not all smartphones will be able to use Siri’s AI functions: it will only be possible on Apple devices that support Apple Intelligence, which include the iPhone 15 Pro and devices with M1 chips or later.
ChatGPT integration
At the conference, the company announced its partnership with OpenAI to bring ChatGPT to Siri and other iOS apps.
After updating the operating system, users will be able to ask ChatGPT questions via Siri, as well as illustrate the question with a photo. ChatGPT will also appear in some content creation apps – for example, it will be possible to generate images on the phone.
ChatGPT will be supported on iOS 18, iPadOS 18 and macOS Sequoia. The feature is promised to be free, without the need to create a ChatGPT or OpenAI account.
Generating emojis and images
The Genmoji feature will also appear in iOS 18 on devices with Apple Intelligence support – it will allow you to generate emoji from photos of people or objects. These emojis can be used as reaction stickers.
Another new feature will be the Image Playground for generating images in Notes and other text-based apps. The function will be implemented as a separate application and API for developers – it will allow you to create detailed images using a preset set of themes, clothes, accessories, places, etc. for a few minutes.
Smart photo editing
The new AI tool “Clean Up” will be part of the updated Photos app. With it, you can remove unnecessary objects from photos. The function can be applied to any photo by circling or highlighting the object that needs to be removed. Using artificial intelligence, the tool will remove the selected element and replace it with pixels of matching colors.
In addition, the organization of photos into folders will be optimized using AI. In iOS 18, the Photos app will automatically sort images by themes like time, people, favorite memories, trips, and more. You can also use more specific keywords to search through photos.
Call transcription
Another AI feature of the upcoming iOS 18 is recording and transcribing telephone conversations. The function will be activated manually. The user on the other end of the line will be informed that the conversation has been recorded. The tool will transcribe everything said and then generate a summary with the main points in Notes.
