Apple is working on integrating AI features into iOS 18; Apple Music and Siri will receive AI upgrades: Mark Gurman

According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple is working on iOS 18, the successor to the company's last iPhone operating system (OS) update, which went out to eligible models last month, and the next big OS upgrade might include significant AI advancements. In his weekly Power On message, Gurman noted that Apple is working on AI capabilities for applications and services such as Apple Music, Siri, Messages, and is researching the use of AI in its productivity tools.

According to Gurman, Apple is working on introducing support for user-facing AI capabilities as part of the iOS 18 upgrade, which is due out next year. Google and Microsoft have already integrated AI-powered functionality to their products, while ChatGPT developer OpenAI has also included various AI elements to its mobile apps. AI capabilities for Apple's applications and services might cost the company $1 billion (approximately Rs. 8,300 crore) over the next year, according to reports.

According to Gurman, Apple's Messages app will receive enhanced AI-powered reply recommendations with the iOS 18 upgrade. Rival On Android, Google's Messages app employs on-device intelligence to propose smart answers for messages that can be delivered with a single tap. The company also intends to offer AI features for its Xcode platform in order to provide developers with benefits such as code completion.

Siri, like the Messages app, is expected to arrive with significant enhancements to the voice assistant's capabilities. The new Siri will be driven by Apple's large language model (LLM), which will also offer enhanced Messages app suggestions. According to Gurman, there are "concerns about the technology" inside Apple, but the new AI functions for Siri might be available by 2024.

According to Gurman, the business is also seeking to build additional AI-powered advancements, such as the capacity to automatically generate playlists. Meanwhile, Apple's productivity applications like Pages, Numbers, and Keynote might acquire additional AI capabilities – Microsoft unveiled new AI-based features for its Microsoft Office productivity suite, as well as its Microsoft Copilot assistant, earlier this year.

While Apple's current apps and services perform many machine learning tasks on the user's device, such as detecting faces in the Photos app, the company may decide to use cloud-based servers for some features that offer more advanced features than competitors, while other experiences would work entirely on the user's device — in order to protect the user's privacy, according to Gurman.

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