Apple has announced the first set of Apple Intelligence features for the Mac, iPhone, and iPad via free software updates with the just-released macOS Sequoia 15.1, iOS 18.1, and iPadOS 18.1.
Apple Intelligence is the personal intelligence system that harnesses the power of Apple silicon to understand and create language and images, take action across apps, and draw from personal context to simplify and accelerate everyday tasks while taking an extraordinary step forward for privacy in AI. Today marks the availability of the first set of features, with many more rolling out in the coming months.
“Apple Intelligence introduces a new era for iPhone, iPad, and Mac, delivering brand-new experiences and tools that will transform what our users can accomplish,” Apple CEO Tim Cook says in a press release. “Apple Intelligence builds on years of innovation in AI and machine learning to put Apple’s generative models at the core of our devices, giving our users a personal intelligence system that is easy to use — all while protecting their privacy. Apple Intelligence is generative AI in a way that only Apple can deliver, and we’re incredibly excited about its ability to enrich our users’ lives.”
Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering adds: “Apple Intelligence unlocks exciting new capabilities that make your iPhone, iPad, and Mac even more helpful and useful, from Writing Tools to help refine your writing, to summarized notifications that surface what’s most important, to the ability to search for almost anything in your photos and videos by simply describing it,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering. “And it’s all built on a foundation of privacy with on-device processing and Private Cloud Compute, a groundbreaking new approach that extends the privacy and security of iPhone into the cloud to protect users’ information. We are thrilled to bring the first set of Apple Intelligence features to users today, and this is just the beginning.”
The current list of Apple Intelligence features include:
° Systemwide Writing Tools: Deeply integrated across macOS Sequoia, iOS, and iPadOS, Writing Tools allow users to refine their language by rewriting, proofreading, and summarizing text virtually everywhere they write, including Mail, Messages, Notes, Pages, and third-party apps.
° More natural and conversational Siri. Siri has a brand-new design with a glowing light that wraps around the edge of the screen when active on iPhone, iPad, or CarPlay. On Mac, users can place Siri anywhere on their desktop to access it easily as they work. Users can type to Siri at any time on iPhone, iPad, and Mac, and can switch fluidly between text and voice as they use Siri to accelerate everyday tasks.
With richer language-understanding capabilities, Siri can follow along when users stumble over their words and maintain context from one request to the next. In addition, with extensive product knowledge, Siri can now answer thousands of questions about the features and settings of Apple products. Users can learn everything from how to take a screen recording to how to easily share a Wi-Fi password.
° More Intelligent Photos App. Natural language search gives users the ability to search for just about anything by simply describing what they are looking for, like “Maya skateboarding in a tie-dye shirt.” This works across videos, too, so users can search for something that happened in a specific segment of the video and go right to it. Search also offers smart completion suggestions to help users quickly complete a search.
There are new Apple Intelligence features for prioritizing and staying focused. You can find more details here.
