Most iPhone Users Uninterested in Apple Intelligence, Survey Suggests

[2540497]

I used Image Playground and Genmoji for a few days when I first got it in Beta before getting bored and forgetting about it / no further need. It’s also too cautious / woke. For example I can make a Genmoji of my chihuahua but not a cockapoo.

The Writing Tools are hard to navigate to, don’t work in every app, and half the time won’t work because Apple policies are too cautious / woke. Numerous times they’ve refused to action a legit request so I’ve had to open the ChatGPT app and done it directly there.

After two months of use I’ve actually turned off Apple Intelligence in the Settings. To even suggest it might be a paid for product in the future is, at this stage, utterly laughable.

Wake me up when it isn’t in Beta and adds actual value to our lives. It doesn’t in its current form.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

“Unimaginative users uninterested in <new thing> that they can’t see the potential of, survey suggests.”

Silicon Valley is huffing too much of it's own brand, and instead of realizing that, the users gets blamed for being "unimaginative".

 

[Bustycat]

On iPhone 16 pro max with 18.2 and all features turned on I just asked Siri when is the first day of winter.

The response - ‘June solstice was on Thursday June 20th 2024’

Wtf?

You just don't know you're in the Southern Hemisphere and that "AI" told you the truth.

 

[CarAnalogy]

This is the very, very beginning of an AI revolution, people. Zero surprise that this isn't yet of interest to most people. Early adopters will give way to more general users. Once people are exposed to the benefits, it will become second nature, it will become the default to use AI in many situations. In any case, AI is focussed more on assisting people in the background not just on-demand. People will benefit from more intelligent summaries, automated reminders, surfacing information, and many other proactive features yet to come.

Sure but we are talking specifically iPhone here, and specifically about what they have already shown.

None of that is even close to what you describe.

Apple has been acting like Siri is useful for years. Maybe they won’t get distracted and let it languish this time.

And they haven’t even gotten around to Siri yet. Very little of what they have released so far do they even claim has any practical use. The rest of it is toys, some of it literally called “playground.”

 

[WarmWinterHat]

You just don't know you're in the Southern Hemisphere and that "AI" told you the truth.

I just asked Siri the same thing, and got the same response. I live in the north-central US, not far from the Canadian border. Lol

 

[Chungry]

I was eager for it until I used it, and then turned it off. Apple needs to go back to the drawing board this is not a best-of-breed marriage of hardware and software. It's a bolt-on and feels like it

 

[FoxyKaye]

Makes sense. Apple hasn't yet delivered a compelling set of features to make it wow people.

I think the Personal Context that's due next year has the potential to start showing the value of it. If Apple executes it well.

Meaning, the generative components of "AI" more accurately reflect the user. So, suggestions on how to respond to texts sound a bit more like the user and suggestions on what's important and what isn't start to reflect the user. Basically, it taking advantage of the iPhone's deep personal data set to make it much better than generic data sets from the likes of ChatGPT.

Right now, it is generative AI with smaller models that don't appear to do anything amazing... Since that is all due to arrive later next year it is very clear they should have likely done this all in iOS 19, but that's a separate discussion altogether.

Time will tell though if they've burned their opportunity with users or not. They've heavily marketed it and user's first impressions are a bit lack luster. Will they come to embrace it or will they just permanently write it off remains to be seen.

It's all the literal definition of, "Underwhelming." So far, the only thing Apple Intelligence has done well is taken up time installing itself on my laptop and phone.

 

[Frantisekj]

What I mentioned doesn't require Apple AI. People who don't use Apple AI can affect upgrade sales.

You can be right. I also bought SE 2020 just because I wanted to use Aiko for on device video transcription and it was cheapest used phone I got which supported it and then 2012 MBP so I can hack Sequoia on it easily 😆. But I believe those money ppl got ends up in Apple ecosystem again.

 

[npmacuser5]

Believable. Most of the features are cool to use once, and that's about it.

None of the features solve a particular "problem" either.

The human brain and judgement is ultimately better than any AI slop served to us.

The very short list: personal admin, a search engine that gives an answer, and a problem solver. The old search engine was nothing more than a phone book yellow pages. I have not used Google search in months. Once the average user gets past the hype, valuable tools are to be found.

 

[iPay]

[...] Once people are exposed to the benefits, it will become second nature

yeah, like Twitter. No doubt. Somehow.

 

[platinumaqua]

Even if one is not interested in Apple Intelligence or if it's not available due to their device or region, it's still taking up resources on their phone. The IPSW for 18.2 takes up 1 GB more than 17.2 and nearly 3 GB more than 16.2 for an iPhone 14 Pro, for example

 

[Cunir]

The problem is that the AI label gets attached to so many things that aren't really AI at all, just so they can make it sound a lot better than it is. I mean, that mail sorting thing, surely they could do that with a keyword search (invoice, subscription, purchase, payment, refund, receipt). Suggesting that we need to upgrade our phones to achieve such a simple thing is bonkers. It devalues the real AI stuff

 

[WarmWinterHat]

Even if one is not interested in Apple Intelligence or if it's not available due to their device or region, it's still taking up resources on their phone. The IPSW for 18.2 takes up 1 GB more than 17.2 and nearly 3 GB more than 16.2 for an iPhone 14 Pro, for example

I just looked on my 16 pro, and you're right, it's taking 2.9gb. I have Apple AI completely disabled.

I have 150gb free, so it's not a huge deal, but still...Bummer.

 

[MrMojo1]

iPhone users have largely avoided the Apple Intelligence features released prior to iOS 18.2, a new survey suggests.

Lots of iPhone users are still using older models, not the newer 15/16 models that support AI.
Also, most users don't want anything fancy like the latest tech but just a smartphone.

 

[maxfromdenmark]

I’m only actually waiting for more useful voice assistant.

 

[kiranmk2]

I think a lot of people just never think to use the AI features because it involves changing their workflows. My wife is constantly scrolling through her photos trying to find a specific photo. When I ask why she doesn't use the search she says it's because she can't remember when or where the photo was taken. When I showed her you can just type natural language into the search box, she found the photo she was looking for quickly. A day later, she was doing the same thing...

Until people get used to how to use a tool, it will often go unused. To me things like animoji/image playground etc are gimmicky use-once features (like camera booth on the iPad used to be).

 

[jonnyb098]

You mean people aren’t interested in half baked features that aren’t even out yet and not even compatible with 90 percent of iPhones on the planet?! IM SHOCKED!

Apple makes something called the Vision Pro that no one even remembers either

 

[I7guy]

Lots of iPhone users are still using older models, not the newer 15/16 models that support AI.
Also, most users don't want anything fancy like the latest tech but just a smartphone.

I think most apple users understand the latest tech, and get the latest tech at an appropriate time for them. Of course we can debate high level generalities such as this.

AI isn’t ready for a real debut yet and apple is doing well with its deliberate approach.

 

[jonnyb098]

I think a lot of people just never think to use the AI features because it involves changing their workflows. My wife is constantly scrolling through her photos trying to find a specific photo. When I ask why she doesn't use the search she says it's because she can't remember when or where the photo was taken. When I showed her you can just type natural language into the search box, she found the photo she was looking for quickly. A day later, she was doing the same thing...

Until people get used to how to use a tool, it will often go unused. To me things like animoji/image playground etc are gimmicky use-once features (like camera booth on the iPad used to be).

Apple tarnished Siri so bad I think there’s just a general lack of trust Apple will fix it to any meaningful degree. Plus a lot of people are creeped out by AI. As they should be. What’s available now are universally looked at as half-baked. Not the way you wanna fix that reputation.

Apple Intelligence is nothing more than ticking a box for Wall Street (which require large companies to have a push into AI). It’s really that simple.

Remember the crypto push of 2023? That went well.

 

[ryan102]

I also turned it off soon as I played with it for 10/15mins. It is a gimmick and I'm surprised Apple hyped it up so much prior to the iPhone 16's landed on peoples doorsteps and then they've gone generally quiet about AI since then.

At this point, people seem happy with the usual features they've had for years (iMessage/Simple menu system/Camera) and don't react well to what looks like Bloatware being installed onto their devices every year and sold as a major new feature we'll use daily for the rest of our lives.

Siri (maybe less so)/Side button Camera/Apple Intelligence amongst others have come and lead to complaints or next to no use to majority of users.

 

[jole]

Apple Intelligence is so far behind todays best models what it is irrelevant: why should anyone ask it anything when the latest Claude/Gemini/o1 are so much smarter?

 

[I7guy]

I think a lot of people just never think to use the AI features because it involves changing their workflows. My wife is constantly scrolling through her photos trying to find a specific photo. When I ask why she doesn't use the search she says it's because she can't remember when or where the photo was taken. When I showed her you can just type natural language into the search box, she found the photo she was looking for quickly. A day later, she was doing the same thing...

Until people get used to how to use a tool, it will often go unused. To me things like animoji/image playground etc are gimmicky use-once features (like camera booth on the iPad used to be).

The real issue is the ai implantation isn’t pervasive. It’s going to take a while as the tech starts to mature when and where ai adds value.

Genmoji is a showcase for ai even if it isn’t perfect.

 

[bartszyszka]

I find it pretty annoying so far. My entire screen gets wobbly with a giant frame around it just for Siri to tell me if it's in raining? I wish there was an option to make it more compact like Siri is without Apple Intelligence.

 

[I7guy]

Apple Intelligence is so far behind todays best models what it is irrelevant: why should anyone ask it anything when the latest Claude/Gemini/o1 are so much smarter?

For me, I use apple products. Why would I use other products? Don’t need a smorgasbord of ai products.

 

[Eriamjh1138@DAN]

I just asked Siri a simple “what is (blank)” question and she had to use ChatGPT TO ANSWER IT.

I deleted image playground. I’ll probably never use Genmoji unless I need an emoji to express something exclusively in emoji.

I don’t even know where the photo editing feature is. I might use it.