iOS 18 uses AI to aggregate notifications, add to calendar, and more

Apple says Apple is ready to unveil an auto-summarization feature for notifications as part of a series of new artificial intelligence features in iOS 18 BloombergThis is Mark Gurman.

In today’s edition of his Power On newsletter, Gurman explained in more detail what to expect from Apple’s first big step into generative AI at the upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference:

As part of the changes, the company will improve Siri’s voice capabilities to give it a more conversational feel and add features to help users in their daily lives – an approach it calls “proactive intelligence.”

These include services like automatically summarizing notifications from your iPhone, providing a quick summary of news articles and transcribing voice memos, as well as improving existing features that auto-populate your calendar and suggest apps. There will also be some improvements to Photos in the form of AI-based editing, but none of these features will impress those who have used AI in Adobe Inc.’s apps in recent months.

Gurman added that while Apple will rely primarily on on-device processing to support its AI capabilities, it will also provide it via the cloud in data centers that contain high-quality Apple silicon chips designed for the Mac. He also pointed out that a ChatGPT-like chatbot will be noticeably absent from Apple’s upcoming AI features. Apple executives are said to have admitted that they are “catching up” internally.

Apple’s first foray into AI is widely expected to be announced as part of a preview of its next-generation software updates at WWDC, which begins June 10.