After a long wait, Apple has finally released its artificial intelligence (AI) tools for the iPhone, available to a select group of users. Apple Intelligence, a suite of AI tools announced in June, became accessible to owners of certain iPhone models worldwide on Monday. The new features include notification summaries, tools to assist users in writing messages, and a revamped interface for the virtual assistant, Siri.
However, these features are only available to users with the latest devices, including all iPhone 16 models and the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max. Apple Intelligence is also available on Mac computers and iPad tablets powered by its latest chips. Some of the tools released on Monday arrived later than similar features on other popular devices.
Apple CEO Tim Cook stated that the public release of its AI tools marks “a new era” for the company’s products. This announcement follows a recent initiative where the company stated it would reward ethical hackers who could demonstrate vulnerabilities in its AI software with a bounty of up to $1 million (£770,000).
The bundle of features released on Monday in the iOS 18.1 update is the first wave of AI tools previously showcased at Apple’s summer developer conference. More features are expected later this year, including the ability to generate images and emojis from text prompts.
In comparison, Google and Samsung have already introduced AI features to their devices. These features include real-time translation of conversations, automatic note organization, and online searches triggered by drawing a circle around an item.
Initially, Samsung made its Galaxy AI features available on its latest handsets but later expanded access to include S22 devices released in 2022. The South Korean tech giant also announced plans in February to introduce Galaxy AI to over 100 million users by 2024.
Apple’s new Clean Up tool, which allows users to remove unwanted objects or people from an image, follows Google’s earlier release of a similar tool called Magic Eraser. Mr. Cook told the Wall Street Journal in October that the company was “perfectly fine with not being first,” emphasizing that it “takes a while to get it really great.”