Apple Intelligence has landed...sort of.
Yesterday was the big reveal (AKA the Apple Event), and the anticipation this time around was all about the potential wow-factor of the AI features packed into the new iPhone and the forthcoming iOS 18.1. Would they impress or disappoint?
Two weeks ago, Colorado AI News ran a story about the continued uncertainty regarding Apple's AI (or the Cupertino-branded "Apple Intelligence," if you will). We knew then it would not arrive in time for the iPhone 16 launch in September. Instead, it was looking as if Apple Intelligence would have a slow rollout through the fall, starting with the release of iOS 18.1 in October, and continuing well into 2025.
The smart money was that we would discover that Apple's AI fell somewhere between cutting-edge innovation that would blow users away and a nothing-to-see-here-folks update that would strike many as yesterday's (or last year's) news – and that it was likely to fall far closer to "yesterday's news," at least initially.
And that seems to be what we're looking at. Vox shared its thoughts on yesterday's annual iPhone announcement under the headline, "Apple's new AI is magically mediocre." This take is courtesy of Adam Clark Estes, who's been testing an unreleased version of the iOS 18.1 software that the rest of us won't get to see until October.
Estes discusses how, since Apple Intelligence works on his phone, he's been enjoying "the extent to which it makes a lot of things I do a little easier." And he sums up Apple Intelligence with this: "We have to wait for the best features. That's a good thing." Estes isn't at all dismayed by the incremental progress Apple seems to be making in AI. In fact, he calls it "cool, useful, and perhaps most importantly, charmingly unfinished (emphasis added). "
Which, ultimately – and perhaps, counter-intuitively – could be a really good thing for Apple. Rather than following the lead that other AI titans have taken in rushing new, hallucinating AI tools into the marketplace (looking at you, Google and Microsoft!), thereby scaring their customers off of AI, Apple's taking the approach of the tortoise in this race. And once again, slow and steady might just win the battle, which in this case is with AI-cautious consumers.
