iOS 18the next major iteration of the iPhone’s operating system, would feature a new suite of AI-powered features, designed to keep up with the AI race in which Google, Microsoft and other tech giants are the avant-garde.
According to a report from AppleInsider, Apple doesn’t necessarily care about deploying an AI chatbot like OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Google Gemini. Instead, the Cupertino-based tech giant is focused on improving the capabilities of utilities and apps that already exist within the Apple ecosystem, including Siri, Safari, Messages, and Spotlight Search.
As we reported in mid-April, these AI features would be “on-device”” (for the most part) to stay true to Apple’s commitment to user privacy.
iOS 18: 3 rumored AI-based features
The AI-based features rolling out in iOS 18 rely on a large language model (LLM) called Apple Ajax, AppleInsider said.
With this LLM at the helm, here are the AI features we expect to see for the next big version of iOS:
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1. Summary with Siri
Apple could give Siri intelligent summary features for messages. The report wasn’t clear on what exactly Siri would do under this new integration, but if we can make an educated guess, the assistant might have the ability to give you a text summary (at least).
2. Summary with Safari
Safari also benefits from summary features, according to AppleInsider. With this feature, users will have the ability to get short AI-generated summaries of any web page on the screen.
3. Spotlight search gets smarter
Report Reveals Apple Ajax Will Allow iOS 18 to Generate “Long Sentence Replies” without cloud-based processing. And according to AppleInsider, it spits it out in “milliseconds.”
This will benefit Spotlight Search, another feature that will reportedly be peppered with AI improvements. Spotlight Search should get smarter. For example, if you enter the name of a saved contact, their information will be displayed.
“The software will also communicate with the Calendar app and take events into account when creating a response,” AppleInsider said.
Although Apple Ajax can perform basic AI tasks while offline (e.g. text analysis and summarization), AppleInsider says more complex AI calculations will require cloud-based processing.
As mentioned at the beginning, we expect to hear more about iOS 18 at WWDC on June 10. The next major version is expected to release alongside the new iPhone16 series in September.
