Apple Intelligence Is Finally Here and Reviewers Are Not Impressed

Apple has finally begun rolling out updates to its AI-powered suite of tools for iOS, iPadOS, and macOS, the company said on Monday.

While the world’s biggest consumer tech company touted its latest enhancements, reviews of Apple Intelligence have been underwhelming.

The AI experience, “in its current form, is quite flat,” said Wired's senior reviews editor Julian Chokkattu.

Ina Fried, chief technology correspondent at Axios, said the preliminary release offered “only modest improvements that left me excited for the future, but also impatient for it.”

And the New York Times sniffed that “the highly touted AI-transformed future still seems a long way off.”

Oh well. Now that it's met its self-imposed October deadline to get something AI-related out the door, Apple has plenty of time to iterate and transform the future.

Apple announced its AI features for its devices—a collaboration with OpenAI—in June during its annual developer’s conference.

The move followed other tech giants, which have been pushing AI advancements across their ecosystems, including Google and Microsoft earlier this year.

Participants in Apple’s beta program have already been able to play with the features released today for iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1 for iPhone 15 Pro and newer models.

Update to Siri and ChatGPT Integration

With the new Apple Intelligence update, Apple said Siri can switch between voice and text and understand when users stumble over their words, all while answering more in-depth questions.

The edges of a device's screen will now glow, alerting the user that Siri is listening, the company said in a statement.

Leveraging its deal with OpenAI, Siri can use ChatGPT for additional help, deeper insights, and responses.

Apple noted that GPT’s chatbot would be available for free, without requiring an account, and would function across apps like Writing Tools and Camera Controls.

New Writing Tools

Monday's preliminary release introduced new writing tools, similar to a cross between Grammarly and Google Docs.

It allows users to rewrite, summarize, and proofread their work, as well as adjust the tone across platforms, including Mail, Messages, Notes, Pages, and third-party apps.

Apple Photos

The Apple Photos app now includes a new “Clean Up” tool that allows users to remove unwanted objects or people from images.

Photos now also supports more advanced searches using natural language, making it easier to find specific photos by describing them.

Prioritizing Emails

The 18.1 update introduces new notification summaries and “Priority Messages” in Mail, making it easier to manage emails, including showing summaries of emails without having to open them and showing the most urgent emails like same-day day invitations.

Mail will also include a “Smart Reply” feature that suggests quick responses to emails.

Transcribing Notes

Similar to transcription software such as Otter.ai, Apple users can now transcribe and summarize phone calls made on the user's devices.

Unlike Otter, Apple transcribes calls in real-time while the call is in progress. According to Apple, participants on the call are automatically notified that the recording is taking place.

Focus on Privacy

While the idea of phone calls being recorded and transcribed may give some users pause, Apple claims that through its “Private Cloud Compute” feature, user data is never stored or shared with Apple.

Despite having ChatGPT included in Apple Intelligence, the Cupertino, California-based firm said user data like IP addresses are hidden, and OpenAI does not store requests made to ChatGPT.

“Designed to protect users’ privacy at every step, Apple Intelligence uses on-device processing, meaning that many of the models that power it run entirely on device.”

Its AI rollout is currently available in U.S. English, with localized English versions for Australia, Canada, South Africa, and the U.K. launching in December.

Apple plans an update to support languages including Chinese, French, German, Japanese, and Spanish in April 2025.

Edited by Josh Quittner and Sebastian Sinclair