CUPERTINO, Calif. (AP) — Apple jumped into the artificial intelligence trend with a new line of iPhones on Monday, the company’s latest attempt to take a technology trend and turn it into a cultural phenomenon.
The four different iPhone 16 models will all be equipped with special chips needed to power a range of AI tools that Apple hopes will make its flagship product even more indispensable and a recent drop in sales.
Apple’s AI features are designed to transform the often-bug-prone virtual assistant Siri into a smarter and more versatile sidekick, automating a wide range of tedious tasks and performing other popular tricks like creating custom emojis in seconds.
After receiving a standing ovation for Monday’s event, Apple CEO Tim Cook promised that the AI package would “unleash innovations that will truly change people’s lives.”
But the breakthrough will not come on September 20, when the new iPhones – priced between $800 and $1,200 – hit stores.
Most of Apple’s AI features will be introduced as part of a free software update to iOS 18, the operating system that underpins the iPhone 16 due out in December. English will be the primary language at launch, but an update enabling other languages will arrive next year, according to Apple.
This is all part of a new approach that Apple is taking to a developer conference three months ago to build anticipation for the next generation of iPhones amid a rare slump in sales of the well-known devices.
Since Apple’s conference in June, competitors such as Samsung and Google have made major strides in artificial intelligence – a technology widely expected to spark the most dramatic changes in computing since the first iPhone launched 17 years ago.
Just as Apple made the development of smartphones an essential technology of the 21st century, the Cupertino, California-based company hopes it can achieve something similar with its belated entry into artificial intelligence.
To differentiate itself from the AI frontrunners, the technology that will be integrated into the iPhone 16 is being promoted as “Apple Intelligence.” Despite the unique branding, Apple’s new approach mimics many of the features already available in the Samsung Galaxy S24 released in January and the Google Pixel 9, which came out last month.
“Apple could have waited another year to move forward, but the initial proliferation of AI-powered devices from companies like Samsung has been encouraging and Apple is keen to capitalize on this market,” said Paolo Pescatore, an analyst at PP Foresight.
Apple is breaking new ground and trying to uphold its long-standing commitment to privacy by adapting its AI so that most of its technological tricks can be processed on the device itself, rather than relying on huge banks of computers in remote data centers. When a task requires a connection to a data center, Apple promises it will do so in a tightly controlled way that ensures no personal data is stored in a remote location.
While keeping the personal information shared by Apple’s AI tools together fundamentally reduces the likelihood that the data will be exploited or misused against the user’s will, it does not guarantee absolute security. A device could still be stolen or hacked through digital trickery, for example.
To give users access to even more AI tools than the iPhone offers, Apple is partnering with OpenAI to give users the ability to outsource more complicated tasks to the popular chatbot ChatGPT.
Although Apple is releasing a free version of its operating system to power on-device AI capabilities, the chip needed to run the technology is only available on the iPhone 16 line and the high-end iPhone 15 models that came out a year ago.
That means most consumers who want to take advantage of Apple’s approach to artificial intelligence will have to buy one of the 16 iPhone models – a development that investors expect will provide a surge in demand just before the holiday season.
The expected sales boom is the main reason Apple’s stock price has risen more than 10 percent since its AI preview in June. But on Monday afternoon after the iPhone unveiling, the company’s shares slipped slightly, continuing a recent downward trend in technology stocks that has been sparked in part by concerns about how long it will take for the industry’s huge investments in AI to pay off.
In addition to its latest iPhones, Apple also introduced a new version of its smartwatch that includes a sleep apnea detection feature, as well as the next generation of its wireless headphones, the AirPods Pro, which can also function as a hearing aid with an upcoming software update.
