Siri is expected to receive a major AI upgrade in iOS 18, but don’t expect all of the AI upgrades to take place until later in iOS 18’s lifecycle.
Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman says that “people with knowledge of the matter” tell him the update will let Siri control all individual features in apps for the first time, expanding the range of functions the personal assistant can perform.
Siri will gain the ability to open documents, move notes from one folder to another, summarize articles, open news sites in Apple News, and much more. Apple plans to use AI to analyze what people are doing on their devices, automatically enabling Siri features.
The new system will allow Siri to take command of all the features within apps for the first time, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the initiative isn’t public. That change required a revamp of Siri’s underlying software using large language models — a core technology behind generative AI — and will be one of the highlights of Apple’s renewed push into AI, they said.
The upgrade is one piece of the company’s larger AI strategy, which will be unveiled at its Worldwide Developers Conference on June 10. Apple is preparing several features, including voice memo transcriptions and summaries, quick recaps of websites and notifications, automated message replies, advanced photo editing, and AI-generated emojis…
Apple has been negotiating with OpenAI to integrate OpenAI’s ChatGPT technology into iOS 18, and is also in discussions with Google about incorporating its AI, Gemini, but Siri functionality will likely rely on Apple’s internal LLM work.
When iOS 18 launches, Siri AI functionality will be limited to Apple’s pre-installed apps, and Apple’s assistant will only be able to carry out one command at a time. Apple is hoping to have Siri respond to multiple commands in an iOS 18 update.
While Apple will preview the new Siri features at June’s WWDC24, the Cupertino firm doesn’t plan to have them all ready in September when iOS 18 will be released alongside new iPhones. Instead, Siri will receive the majority of its AI updates in a 2025 iOS 18 update.
Siri’s more basic AI tasks will be processed locally on the users’ devices themselves, while more advanced capabilities will be handled via the cloud. Apple software boss Craig Federighi has reportedly told his teams to develop as many new AI features as possible for this year’s operating system updates.
Gurman says that on-device iOS 18 AI capabilities will largely require an iPhone 15 Pro or later to work, and an M1 or later for iPadOS 18 and macOS 15.
Apple’s AI servers will be powered by M2 Ultra and M4 chips. Apple is planning to use those chips’ Secure Enclave “to help isolate the data being processed on its servers so that it can’t be seen by the wider system or Apple.” Gurman says that Apple will also provide customers with an “intelligent report” that explains how information is kept safe.
WWDC 2024 is set to kick off on Monday, June 10, with a keynote address set for 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time.
