Report: Apple Plans to Make On-Device AI a Key WWDC Focus

[neuropsychguy]

apple keeps talking about AI yet they have yet to release anything related to it. apple = vaporware

It’s only 'vaporware' if you think "AI" is just a chatbot. Apple has been shipping dedicated "AI" hardware since the A11 chip in 2017. The Neural Engine inside an iPhone runs massive machine learning pipelines completely in the background. It handles on-device Live Text OCR, face and object recognition in your photo library, deciding when to charge and how much to charge batteries, computational photography processing at a fraction of the power a CPU would use, and much more. Apple Intelligence does have live features too (albeit in a much more limited and delayed state than originally announced); those same local cores are handling generative text editing and image manipulation. It’s hard to call something vaporware when it has been running on iPhones for years.

Edit: I'm not defending Apple Intelligence or its rollout. I'm simply clarifying that Apple has been running "AI" on our iPhones and Macs for a long time. Focusing only on one particular type of "AI" is not acknowledging the forest because there are some trees missing.

2nd edit: as an example, FaceID is "AI" as well. It's a convolutional neural network (CNN). Even TouchID uses machine learning ("AI"), and that's been around for years.

 

[neuropsychguy]

Aside from comforting shareholders that Apple isn't completely missing the AI boat, I'm not sure who this is suppose to reassure.

People who care about security and privacy.

 

[Etc_]

Apple's whole AI thing is so sketchy. First, they massively overpromised, and more than two years later, they still haven't delivered on their promises. Now, it's going to be a watered-down version of what they promised, and their whole Private Cloud Compute seems to have been vaporware all along. Even if they keep the branding, it's not going to happen on their own infrastructure, which is completely different from what they promised. I want less Google deals, not more. On top of that, I am sure there will be a 'Siri+' or something similar to get those sweet, sweet service revenues they're lusting for. I do think the on-device capabilities will be quite limited, yet they're still going to hog all the RAM and battery life, even if you don't want to use them. After all, they needed years just to get simple timers to run on-device with Siri.

 

[Edgecrusherr]

I would like them to focus on stability and refining / finishing Liquid Glass. AI can be secondary.

 

[RedWeasel]

Everything I read says On Device or Edge AI will be the future of AI with Cloud AI still being used but to a lesser and lesser extent. A big analogy I keep seeing is the mainframe to the PC. I guess Apple was right all along.

Only that we moved on from the PC to the cloud and are basically back at square one.

 

[rp2011]

I think this is by far the best strategy. It's about how can AI on device be useful for its consumers, not Apple jumping into this new and as yet undefined and changing AI world. Do they want to become an AI provider just as did they want to become an any other service provider? I mean it's not like anyone is making a killing on it, and Google is seen as a "major player" because unlike any of it's competitors they have a cash cow that can fund it, not because they are fundamentally "better". Just that they can just afford to lose money indefinitely on it. Good for them. It's not as if anyone one is shaking their pom poms with excitement over it other than those deep in the AI echo-chamber.

 

[RedWeasel]

I’m going out on a limb and saying full featured on-device Apple Intelligence or other LLMs will not be featured on current gen Apple Watches. Now, if future watches have their System on Chip printed on 2nm fabs, hell, iPhone Air 2 could just be a screen that attaches to your watch via a short range 1-2meter Airplay connection 👍

I mean, current gen Apple Watches cannot even measure your heart rate every second constantly. There's quite a way to go there.

 

[gummybear2026]

iPhone 18 must be at 12GB ram if they are planning on device AI.

 

[MilaM]

On device AI is the reason (I believe) that I am not able to buy a mini at the moment to replace my aging iMac. Everyone is using them for OpenClaw and other AIs. It's my own fault I waited to update.

I think there is a decent chance, that all those minis bought for experimentation with Claw-like apps will flood the second hand market in a few months.

 

[Dirk Pieters]

I'm looking forward to the reported emotional support that is coming in the new Siri.

Finally all those who struggle with the rounded corners in Tahoe will have a listening ear.

 

[macaddict06]

I am pretty happy with Gemini Nano v2 on my ZF7 since I'm not much for asking AI questions about stuff when I can just google it. I just need something that I can make calls, appointments, respond/summarize email/texts etc. with hands free. Let's see how this stacks up to it, for all I know it is probably the same thing? I've also tried Gemini on the iPad and its system wide integration is terrible so hopefully they would improve on that as well.

This is what I want also but I also don’t trust an AI to not go crazy and destroy my digital life. There needs to be safeguards in place from Apple to ensure it doesn’t go nuts

 

[JMalone]

Just in time for me to finally throw in the towel and hit the “off” switch for AI on all my Apple devices! I miss the in-person live WWDC but with all this AI I can’t imagine they’d be as lively in 2026.

Whenever we see someone frothing at the mouth about evil AI and how they wish it doesn’t exist, we catch them the next day asking ChatGPT what’s the difference between a diplosaurus and a brontosaurus and please ChatGPT rewrite this long angry anti AI post I want to publish on the internets.

 

[yuvaldv1]

They aren't going to ship anything that would absolutely wreck battery life.

While I agree, it should be noted that Image Clean Up and Image Playground (both of which run on-device IIRC) cause significant battery drain when used.

 

[JMalone]

W Apple

Local ai is always the future. Private, cheaper, and doesnt need a harmful datacenter

Private yes, but if you’re mature enough to understand scale then you’ll understand datacenters are more efficient and cheaper than millions of devices trying to do the same thing. They can invest in renewable energy, or buy energy at fixed rates for many months and they can bulk purchase hardware components at discount every three years.

 

[BorisDG]

Very hyped for A20 Pro!

 

[Abydos]

we can hope the AI has been trained on old MAD magazines, be really useful then

 

[I7guy]

I think the name “Siri” brings so much bad energy that they should do like Microsoft with Internet Explorer and rebrand it. Even if they make Siri work, everybody already has this idea that it sucks no matter what.

That’s not true:
1. Not everybody thinks Siri brings bad energy and,
2. Not everybody believes the name should go away and “sucks no matter what”.

 

[I7guy]

Apple's whole AI thing is so sketchy. First, they massively overpromised, and more than two years later, they still haven't delivered on their promises. Now, it's going to be a watered-down version of what they promised, and their whole Private Cloud Compute seems to have been vaporware all along. Even if they keep the branding, it's not going to happen on their own infrastructure, which is completely different from what they promised. I want less Google deals, not more. On top of that, I am sure there will be a 'Siri+' or something similar to get those sweet, sweet service revenues they're lusting for. I do think the on-device capabilities will be quite limited, yet they're still going to hog all the RAM and battery life, even if you don't want to use them. After all, they needed years just to get simple timers to run on-device with Siri.

There is an off button for those who don’t want to use Apple Intelligence.

 

[Playr1]

On device better mean no Internet required and it will do whatever you want none of this I'm not allowed BS...

 

[PBG4 Dude]

While I agree, it should be noted that Image Clean Up and Image Playground (both of which run on-device IIRC) cause significant battery drain when used.

Think of what graphically intensive games due to device batteries. AI uses primarily GPU so you can infer (ha!) battery usage based on this.

 

[citysnaps]

That’s not true:
1. Not everybody thinks Siri brings bad energy and,
2. Not everybody believes the name should go away and “sucks no matter what”.

Spot-on. I use Siri everyday, multiple times per day. I have no issues with it.

Like other Apple tech... For many people here, Siri has been a convenient go-to cudgel to take an empowering feel-good slam at Apple. A forum tradition going back 20+ years.

 

[applesith]

Time for more RAM!

 

[Yr Blues]

Does Apple care about the environment and humanity?

 

[one more]

I understand the privacy benefits of on-device models, yet it all depends on how well this is implemented. The current (iOS 26) Apple Intelligence, for example, weighs around 10 GB and is really resource hungry, even on the most recent Apple devices. So I am curious to see what Apple pull out now.

 

[FatLouie]

My concern is RAM and Battery.

What AI can do 'on device' will be limited unless there is a huge swath of memory available. How useful this will be without access to cloud services is questionable to me. I suspect this feature will be using the cloud more than Apple is acknowledging at the moment.