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Apple Intelligence

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Apple Intelligence

Apple unveiled its suite of AI features back at WWDC24 back in June, dubbed Apple Intelligence. The feature set requires an iPhone 15 Pro or later for iPhone, and an M1 chip or later for iPad and Mac. The great thing about Apple Intelligence is that most of these features run on device, prioritizing privacy.

The features below are currently available in iOS 18.1 beta, which should release to the public in October. Additional features will be coming later.

Writing Tools

One of the top Apple Intelligence features is Writing Tools, allowing you to quickly proofread, rewrite, or change the tone of your writing. It isn’t intended to generate completely new text, and it instead focuses on improving your writing.

This feature is available practically anywhere you’re able to write. Just select some text, and you should see Writing Tools in a context menu.

Apple Intelligence writing tools in iPadOS 18.1

Apple Intelligence Summaries

Apple Intelligence aims to help you out by providing summaries in everyday places, such as Notifications, Mail, and Safari. If you have a stack of notifications from one app, Apple Intelligence will try to summarize all of them into a one liner, that way you can keep up with everything going on with a quick glance, which is particularly helpful in group chats.

In Mail, it’ll also summarize emails from the Mail list view, which is far more useful than just seeing the first two lines of the email. If you tap into the email, you can also see a more detailed summary, still saving you time if you don’t want to read a whole email.

You can also use it to summarize articles in Reader Mode while in Safari.

Apple Intelligence notification summaries

New Focus Mode option

With Apple Intelligence, you can enable a new setting called “Intelligent Breakthrough & Silencing” on any focus mode, which will allow any app to break through your Focus Mode, if Apple Intelligence determines that it might be important.

For example, you might have iMessage notifications disabled from non co-workers while in your Work focus. However, if a family member texts you with something urgent, you should get notified still.

Memory Creation

In the Photos app, you can create a Memory Movie with just a short description. You could write something like “hanging with friends in Los Angeles in June”, and it’ll gather a bunch of photos and create a movie for you, containing all of those memories.

Photos with Apple Intelligence in iOS 18.1

Clean Up

With the new Photos app, you can use Apple Intelligence to clean up your photos. If someone’s in the background and you’d like to remove them, you can simply draw a line around them, and the system will intelligently remove them from the photo and replace the background.

You can also remove random background objects that seem out of place, to make your photo look less cluttered.

Coming later

This is just the beginning of Apple Intelligence, and more features should come later. Later this year, we should get support for ChatGPT within Siri. And next year, the all new Siri should begin rolling out, allowing you to ask Siri more complex questions and actually get proper answers, thanks to Apple Intelligence. The new Siri will also have personal context, and should be able to properly assist you with your day.

Apple’s image generation features, such as Genmoji and Image Playground, are also on the roadmap, but not yet available in beta.

Apple Intelligence ChatGPT iOS 18

SploitLight: Microsoft warns macOS flaw could leak Apple Intelligence metadata

Microsoft has detailed a serious macOS vulnerability that could allow malicious apps to bypass system privacy protections. Dubbed “SploitLight,” the flaw exploited how Spotlight indexes plugin data to access sensitive files and Apple Intelligence metadata. Apple addressed the issue in macOS in March, but users on older versions could be at risk.

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Apple shows off new store in Osaka, Japan – with Apple Intelligence workshop

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We learned earlier this month that a new Apple store was coming to Osaka, Japan, and the company has today shared photos ahead of Saturday’s official opening. Accessibility is cited a key factor in the store design.

Apple says that the Today at Apple workshops offered there will include one on taking advantage of Apple Intelligence features …

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Proton throws shade at Apple Intelligence privacy as it launches AI chatbot

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The company behind encrypted email service Proton Mail has today launched a new freemium AI chatbot which promises that your chats will remain completely private.

Proton Lumo offers five protections it says aren’t matched by any of the existing mainstream AI services like ChatGPT and Gemini, and has even thrown shade at Apple Intelligence privacy …

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Apple shareholders sue over Apple Intelligence and Siri delays

iOS 26 Apple Intelligence

Apple is continuing to face fallout from its Apple Intelligence rollout. As spotted by Reuters, Apple shareholders have sued Apple in a proposed class action securities fraud case for allegedly “downplaying how long it needed to integrate advanced artificial intelligence into its Siri voice assistant.”

The lawsuit alleges that this misrepresentation negatively impacted iPhone sales and Apple’s stock price.

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How much control are you willing to hand over to Apple Intelligence? [Poll]

How much control are you willing to hand over to Apple Intelligence? [Poll]

More than a decade ago, I noted a shift that was taking place in my tech usage, with reader comments indicating I was far from alone. Essentially I started out wanting manual control over lots of processes before later opting for the convenience of allowing Apple apps and services to automate them.

I think we’re approaching another of those inflection points – this time courtesy of AI. Whenever Apple Intelligence evolves into something powerful, we’re going to have to decide exactly how much control we’re willing to hand over …

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At least Apple Intelligence doesn’t tell addicts to take meth …

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The leisurely pace of Apple’s AI efforts has come under increasing fire, with the company accused of being behind the curve. But a new study on the dangers of AI chatbots suggests that other companies are not being cautious enough.

OpenAI had to recall a recent ChatGPT update, after it tried too hard to agree with users, resulting in an experience which was both absurd and awkward – but the problem is bigger than that …

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