Apple announced new artificial intelligence services and a revamped look for its Siri voice assistant in June and plans to start testing them later this year, but a new report says some features likely won’t arrive until next year.
The company’s upcoming Apple Intelligence service is set to begin testing later this year and promises a host of new features, including a revamped look, more intuitive voice controls, and integration with OpenAI’s popular ChatGPT. A new report from Bloomberg on Sunday gave more details about the release window, saying Apple plans to deliver Siri’s new look and ChatGPT integration later this year. Meanwhile, new Siri features like controlling apps with your voice and understanding what you’re looking at on the screen won’t arrive until next year.
“Neither upgrade will be ready when Apple Intelligence is released this fall,” Bloomberg writes.
Representatives for Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Apple has been more cautious in launching AI services than other tech giants, while companies like Microsoft, Google parent Alphabet, Facebook parent Meta, and OpenAI have rushed to launch new features to drum up consumer interest. Unfortunately, some new products have launched to decidedly mixed results.
Google perhaps attracted the most attention for adding summaries it called “AI summaries” to its search results. The new feature, released in May, quickly began spreading racist conspiracy theories and dangerous health advice, such as recommendations to eat rocks and put glue on pizza to stop cheese from sticking. After user posts about embarrassing Google search results went viral, the company announced it would delay the feature’s release, but some publications continued to point out that it was spreading misinformation.
Apple executives said the company’s approach is based on a commitment to ensure transparency around content created or edited by AI, among other things. Apple also said it wants to ensure user privacy, in what was seen as a direct criticism of its peers, who have warned users that the data their AI touches could be used to train the technology.
It remains to be seen whether Apple’s approach will win over consumers or potentially change the tech industry’s approach to AI, but it does raise some important questions about the impact of artificial intelligence.
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For example, Google researchers published a 29-page report last month warning that people using AI to flood the internet with “low-quality, spammy, synthetic content” could foster distrust of all digital information — in effect, causing AI “junk” to destroy our shared understanding of reality.
Apple hopes to avoid many of these issues through focused AI features, like how it can identify plans made in emails or automatically summarize long text message exchanges between friends. Company executives are touting Apple Intelligence as helping make “our most personal products even more useful and enjoyable.”
So far, investors have welcomed the company’s approach, sending Apple’s stock price to more than $3.4 trillion, its highest level ever.
Bloomberg’s report also included an update on Apple’s smartwatch plans.
