Bloomberg: iOS 18 Advanced AI Features Likely to Be Opt-In Service

[hans1972]

Maybe they are not confident that their on-device LLM is efficient enough and would perform without slowing down the device and hence, by making it optional, at least the device will function and deliver its primary objectives? Once they are optimised after a few iterations, then people will automatically enable it on their devices.

Apple's LLMs seems to be quite good at running locally. I think it's more about the breadth of requests they can handle.

Request like these is quite likely easy for a local Apple LLM to support:
* Turn off my light
* Provide direction to the nearest gas station
* Play some Christmas songs

Here are some questions/request I did to ChatGPT:
* Where to stay in Porto center for vacation?
* What is Aristotle's view on a happy life?
* Can you provide more details on Eudaimonia as the Highest Good?
* Which battles in WWII had the biggest losses of men?
* f(x) = 1/(x^3+1). Integrate f(x)
* Can an Audi A3 convertible run on E10 petrol?
* Summarize Kuhn's "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions"
* Has a dog played in the NHL?
* What's the definition of a tourist trap?
* I'm going to Norway for a week this summer. What's the best way to see some fjords?

It's these kind of requests I believe Apple might have hit a wall and where services from openAI and Google are better.

 

[cardfan]

My problem with generative ChatGPT style AI is that you ask it a question and it spits out an answer but that answer is completely unsourced and possibly wrong and/or dangerous.

I can see AI being useful for stuff like voice and image recognition and helping you find resources, but not for just producing an answer on its own.

A big improvement would be for answers to be sourced or attributed. But as it stands, hell no for me. I'm glad Apple is making it opt-in.

That’s the rub. Even in enterprise you have to vet the output. You cannot trust it. You will always need to do so. So how useful is this really other than a gimmick? But a gimmick I can see casual users enjoy using and Apple can easily sell as a feature.

 

[Biro]

The number of people being so much against AI in total is staggering and makes me dumbfounded.

I'm not talking about people having doubts about this or that solution, or talking about the need for restrictions on certain implementations, or talking about safety. I'm talking about total opponents for whom AI = bad, "remove and stop it!" I'm really reliving the early '00s again. "internet bad and useless!"

AI offers great promise in many areas - including medical research and weather forecasting. As something that has direct access to most civilians? I’m not so sure. It’s pretty bad when the people working on AI itself are sending out warnings.

OpenAI Employees Warn of Advanced AI Dangers

Several current and former employees of OpenAI and Google DeepMind today shared an open letter warning of the dangers of advanced AI and the current...

www.macrumors.com

If you thought the corrosive effects of Social Media were bad, you haven’t seen anything yet.

 

[garranhado]

Years after years Apple release soo powerful hardware that people complain about their needs and lack of powerful software… now that hardware becomes deprecated loooool

I can imagine people will buying a M4 now and when real software updates comes years later this hardware will be deprecated.

 

[pksv]

I didn't realize that there are so many anti-tech, negative about anything new, or any change in tech MacRumors users.
Almost any thread with something new that is coming there are mostly people saying how stupid, useless, unnecessary it is. Seriously, what are you guys doing here? This a website about one of the largest tech companies in the World, what do you want them to do? Stop innovating, stop changing, and just keep things where they are? Or maybe the biggest innovation is slapping batteries as big as possible on whatever devices they already have?

 

[hans1972]

We

lol could you imagine your parents trying to figure out a chat bot, or even trying to explain it to them?

I think they'll do fine.

Manners maketh Nan: Google praises grandmother for polite internet searches

Grandson says May Ashworth believed she was writing to a person at Google HQ when typing in search queries

www.theguardian.com

Parent: Please translate these Roman numerals MCMXCVIII. Thank you.

The Roman numeral MCMXCVIII translates to 1998 in Arabic numerals. Here's the breakdown of the components:

• M = 1000
• CM = 900 (1000 - 100)
• XC = 90 (100 - 10)
• VIII = 8 (5 + 3)

Adding these together:

1000 + 900 + 90 + 8 = 1998

 

[Beautyspin]

Apple's LLMs seems to be quite good at running locally. I think it's more about the breadth of requests they can handle.

Request like these is quite likely easy for a local Apple LLM to support:
* Turn off my light
* Provide direction to the nearest gas station
* Play some Christmas songs

Here are some questions/request I did to ChatGPT:
* Where to stay in Porto center for vacation?
* What is Aristotle's view on a happy life?
* Can you provide more details on Eudaimonia as the Highest Good?
* Which battles in WWII had the biggest losses of men?
* f(x) = 1/(x^3+1). Integrate f(x)
* Can an Audi A3 convertible run on E10 petrol?
* Summarize Kuhn's "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions"
* Has a dog played in the NHL?
* What's the definition of a tourist trap?
* I'm going to Norway for a week this summer. What's the best way to see some fjords?

It's these kind of request I believe Apple might have hit a wall and where services from openAI and Google are better.

These are the types of requests that are generally possible for on-device LLMs to handle.

Gemini Live on Google Pixel | Real-Time AI at Your Fingertips

Gemini Live on Pixel: seamless AI integrations enhanced by Pixel technology. Get smarter insights, seamless interactions, and enhanced efficiency, hands-free and on-the-go with Google Pixel.

store.google.com

However, it is also possible that some of the tasks that Microsoft Copilot does on device can be done on iPhones to a certain extent, while they definitely can be done on an iPad and Macbook (it seems they need 40 TOP NPU). Since the older versions do not have 40 TOPs but about half or one-fourth (depending on the device), some of the LLMs might work better on the latest devices and they may lag/not work on the older devices. Maybe the option to enable the AI services is to cover such cases.

 

[aespana]

Well, no AI for my SE 2020 I guess

 

[jwdsail]

I don’t understand your thinking as this will be the main theme for iOS 18 & you don’t want to use the features.
My question would be why upgrade to iOS 18 if you don’t want to use any of this & just stay on iOS 17

Why upgrade anyway? To continue to get current security updates I'd imagine. Shouldn't be forced into the ChatGPT spitshow just to get security updates.

 

[ellpee]

If only there were a way to do the same thing with sideloading or using a different browser engine.

 

[StrongArmmed]

I was more referring to the average Phone user.

The average phone user isn't who AI is being developed for. If that were the only audience, you wouldn't find alums of Open AI, Google and others warning of the real threat that they see in unchecked AI development.

 

[Churchman]

Hello sir I need to ask you a question. We are seeing several examples of people claiming to be Apple customers and complaining about their product and whenever they type macOS on the forum they spell it as ‘MacOS’ ‘Mac-OS’ ‘Macos’ and so on.

If they are genuinely using an Apple product the spelling should have been auto corrected to macOS. What’s going on?

See attached...
What is your next silly question?

 

[CarAnalogy]

Your phone won’t stop working because you don’t install iOS 18 within 1 year that’s just won’t happen.
That’s why iOS 16 is still supported nearly 1 year later. The same with Mac OS it still gets security & bug fixes over 1 year later

Mac is different. They keep publishing security updates and you can keep downloading them.

On iOS they stop publishing security updates for the prior version fast, and even faster they only allow those point releases on devices that they won’t allow to upgrade to the latest major release.

I never said it would stop working, I said it’s not really an option for long. Apple makes sure it isn’t.

 

[hans1972]

You honestly think that a chat bot is useful to the general public?

Yes, it can provide answers quicker and more effortlessly than regular Google search and without the hassle to select websites and reading those.

 

[hans1972]

I had a run-in with Mac-OS on my MBP last fall that had my notebook in the Apple store for 2 days due to a software glitch that happened after an OS update bricked my MBP. Smelled like fail to me then, as the Apple staff at the store were apologizing for the ... failure that Apple caused.

What is the correct way to spell Mac-OS?

ChatGPT:

The correct way to spell the operating system developed by Apple Inc. is "macOS." This stylization has been in use since 2016, replacing the previous "OS X" and "Mac OS X" names. Here’s a brief timeline of the naming conventions:

- Mac OS: Used until version 9 (Mac OS 9).
- Mac OS X: Used from version 10.0 (Cheetah) in 2001 through 10.7 (Lion).
- OS X: Used from version 10.8 (Mountain Lion) through 10.11 (El Capitan).
- macOS: Adopted starting with version 10.12 (Sierra) and continues to be used in the current versions.

So, the current and correct spelling is "macOS."

 

[hans1972]

My problem with generative ChatGPT style AI is that you ask it a question and it spits out an answer but that answer is completely unsourced and possibly wrong and/or dangerous.

You have the same problem if you ask people too. And for a lot of people they don't even use the context provided by a Google search.

 

[hans1972]

These are the types of requests that are generally possible for on-device LLMs to handle.

Gemini Live on Google Pixel | Real-Time AI at Your Fingertips

Gemini Live on Pixel: seamless AI integrations enhanced by Pixel technology. Get smarter insights, seamless interactions, and enhanced efficiency, hands-free and on-the-go with Google Pixel.

store.google.com

However, it is also possible that some of the tasks that Microsoft Copilot does on device can be done on iPhones to a certain extent, while they definitely can be done on an iPad and Macbook (it seems they need 40 TOP NPU). Since the older versions do not have 40 TOPs but about half or one-fourth (depending on the device), some of the LLMs might work better on the latest devices and they may lag/not work on the older devices. Maybe the option to enable the AI services is to cover such cases.

Nothing in the link provides examples like the ones in the last group I provided.

All the examples seems to use data which was on the phone and related to tasks you do on the phone.

 

[scorpio vega]

Massive lack of RAM finally hits Apple from behind...

...so they have to rent services from other companies.

Massive lack of ram? It isn’t android lmao it doesn’t need a crap ton of ram to run smoothly. I used my brothers iPhone 11 and aside from a slight delay it runs better than many android phones released in the last year with 2-3 times more ram.

 

[scorpio vega]

Make rcs opt in as well because I don’t want that bs. Save it for the androids.

 

[Hails09]

Mac is different. They keep publishing security updates and you can keep downloading them.

On iOS they stop publishing security updates for the prior version fast, and even faster they only allow those point releases on devices that they won’t allow to upgrade to the latest major release.

I never said it would stop working, I said it’s not really an option for long. Apple makes sure it isn’t.

That’s funny because the last update for iOS 16 was may 2024 so that means if your still on iOS 16 you will still be supported a good 8 months later with security & bug fixes.

 

[Hails09]

Massive lack of ram? It isn’t android lmao it doesn’t need a crap ton of ram to run smoothly. I used my brothers iPhone 11 and aside from a slight delay it runs better than many android phones released in the last year with 2-3 times more ram.

What android you talking about my sisters Samsung s20 is still going strong all these years later.
You must be talking about cheap androids then

 

[Hails09]

No one suggested you can’t use an old phone or old apps anymore as a blanket statement. My son was using an iPhone 6 until a few months ago. What you describe is correct regarding security updates from Apple. They do release those on some non-current OS versions.

Regarding non-Apple apps, it’s up to each developer to decide if/when to support the new OS version but if they want to leverage a new feature, they have to make the move. When they do, they have to decide if they want to continue to support older versions of the app and if so, which versions.

Often the reason a developer may require the user to update the app is due to their own (not Apple) back-end (cloud, server, database, etc.) changes. When this happens, they need to make/test the changes in however many versions of the app they decided to support. More supported versions = more money/resources spent, so I certainly understand if a developer concludes they only want to deal with a limited number of versions. If a developer has decided they only support the latest one or two OS version of the app, the user may be stuck. They must update their OS if they want to continue to use the app. In my experience, this happens fairly often. Have you ever tried to install a previous version of an app because you don’t have the latest OS? I have on multiple occasions and can’t remember the last time I was successful, even when the option was there in the AppStore.

I can guarantee you if you have an iPhone X on iOS 16 all your apps will still work. Your apps suddenly won’t stop working because they are on a years old operating system it takes years for apps to get cut off. For example if your iPhone can only go to iOS 16 you will still be able to use the 3rd party apps for at least a few years yet.

 

[Jaisah]

My theory is that Apple will be leveraging a bunch of different LLM’s. They will use their own for Siri since they have developed it to run on device (unlike everything else which requires an internet connection and a huge server) and then for specific tasks it will use ChatGPT, Gemini etc to perform a certain task which will then be presented by Apples AI/Siri. All of this will happen in the background so to the user it will be invisible and it will seem like it is just one AI doing all the work except for maybe a delay while it communicates with the server. Gemini will be used for Google searches and ChatGPT will be used for more complex questions meanwhile all basic communication and on device actions will be perfromed by AppleGPT/Siri and there will be others too like the ones Apple has already teased that can edit photos with voice commands or turn still images into GIFs etc. I can’t wait to see what they have for us.

 

[ksnell]

So maybe a Siri 2.0 on device for native app interaction and then an AI SDK to link into OpenAI/Gemini (optionally) so Siri can talk to her buddies?

 

[ZZ9pluralZalpha]

To be fair internet has proven quite bad and for large parts useless. Just look at what social media is doing to kids mental health and how much time people waste watching YouTube or other ahem... video sites.

And sites to endlessly track and discuss new electronic produ—oh, wait...