Apple Intelligence: what you need to know about the iPhone’s big upgrade

Peter Griffin’s consumer tech columns appear fortnightly on listener.co.nz

Apple may have been slow to embrace let alone mention artificial intelligence in recent years, happy for its competitors to jump on the generative AI bandwagon.

But that changed this month when the smartphone giant revealed its brand of AI, which it dubbed Apple Intelligence, will be powered by ChatGPT creator OpenAI, and built into Apple’s high-end and late-model devices when its latest operating system iOS18 debuts later this year.

Apple has been in the AI game for some time, allowing certain apps to process AI workloads on its devices. But with iOS18, Apple infuses AI into its operating system at a fundamental level, which will make Apple’s own apps more intuitive, give its Siri voice assistant a significant upgrade, and let third-party app makers take advantage of AI on the device to supercharge their own apps.

Apple’s key pitch to iPhone users is that processing AI tasks on the phone avoids sending sensitive user data to cloud computing platforms, making it less likely to be hacked, stolen or inappropriately accessed. It is hoping to build on its reputation for prioritising security and privacy.

There’s a lot to unpack about Apple Intelligence but here are five key things you need to know about it, particularly if you will be in the market for a new iPhone, Mac computer or tablet in 2024.

1. It won’t be available on most iPhones

Let’s get the bad news out of the way upfront. The new AI features that will debut on the iPhone won’t be compatible with at least 90% of existing iPhone models. Apple Intelligence will only be compatible with the latest high-end models, including the iPhone 15 Pro (from $2099) and the iPhone 15 Pro Max (from $2499) that contain Apple’s A17 Pro chip. That’s just two of 24 models that will be compatible with iOS18.

The situation is better when it comes to Apple Mac computers, MacBooks and iPads. Apple intelligence will be available on computers with Apple’s M1 processor or higher. That equates to five of the 15 iPad models that are compatible with the new iPadOS18 operating system, and 13 of the 18 Mac computers compatible with macOS 15 Sequoia.