00:00Let's go back to September.
00:02Apple launches the iPhone 16, and it is all about Apple Intelligence.
00:08Apple Intelligence.
00:09Apple Intelligence.
00:10Apple Intelligence takes us even further.
00:13And then we got the iPhone 16, and there was no AI on it.
00:18Apple Intelligence is here now, and it's been here for a few months.
00:22So, it's a fair time to ask, is this anything?
00:27That's a question we jokingly ask at The Verge when companies put AI in stuff.
00:33But it's a fair question to ask of Apple's AI, since we've had it for a while now.
00:38Was it worth the hype? Is it making our lives easier?
00:41Siri, what is a good place I could get coffee?
00:43I didn't get that.
00:44Right now I'm not so sure, but there's good reason to hope that it might be something after all.
00:49To answer the is this anything question, let's back up and look at what Apple Intelligence actually is.
00:55I think we can kind of group it into two buckets.
00:58There's things that help you create, and things that help you process information.
01:02On the creation side, there's writing tools.
01:05They're pretty standard fare for AI at this point.
01:07Stuff like changing the tone of your writing, producing summaries of your notes,
01:11or turning a chunk of text into a list or table.
01:14Personally, I haven't found these writing tools to be super useful, and they're kind of fiddly to use.
01:19But the summarization feature is actually pretty cool.
01:22Actually pretty cool.
01:23Especially if you pair it with voice transcription.
01:26I'm gonna need five outfits for Lennox.
01:30He's gonna need some toys.
01:32We'll need to bring some snacks.
01:34Baby monitor.
01:35Pajamas for him.
01:36Sunscreen.
01:37You know, some changes in clothes.
01:39Comfortable walking shoes.
01:41But also some flip-flops.
01:43Yeah, this should do it.
01:44Oh, it thinks my child's name is Lennox.
01:47Did it miss anything?
01:49Let's see.
01:52Yeah, I think it did okay.
01:54Let me get into a table.
01:57It did okay.
02:02The other creation tools are image-based, and they all kind of center around Image Playground,
02:07which is Apple's AI image generator.
02:10It was introduced in iOS 18.2, and it's a dedicated app,
02:14but it also unlocks image tools in other places throughout the OS.
02:18Image Playground lets you start with a person in your photo library,
02:22or a text prompt, or both.
02:24And you can pick from a few different styles and some suggested prompts
02:28based on locations or goofy accessories.
02:31It also lets you generate images in the Notes app,
02:34where you can take a rough sketch and turn it into something more polished.
02:38And of course there's Genmoji, which lets you create custom emoji based on your prompts.
02:43Honestly, I'm not sure what to make of all this.
02:46Image Playground is sort of fun, but the novelty wears off after a while,
02:50and you do get the telltale signs of AI.
02:53Oh god.
02:55There's just one extra finger down there.
02:58And it's kind of fun reacting with custom emojis,
03:01but they're really small, so it can be hard to tell what they are.
03:05I don't want to dismiss it all, because some people like Memojis,
03:09and I never use them.
03:11There's probably plenty of people who think it's a fun way to express themselves,
03:15and that's awesome.
03:17I'm just going to stick to the regular emojis.
03:21Then there's the other bucket, helping you process information.
03:24There's a few ways that Apple Intelligence does this,
03:27but I think the most well-known is notification summaries.
03:30You know the gist of it.
03:32You get a bunch of alerts from one source, like some texts all in a row,
03:36and your phone will use AI to give you a summary that you can read at a glance.
03:40It's helpful if you need to get caught up on a conversation quickly,
03:43but when it goes wrong, it can go very wrong.
03:46The results can be funny or really not funny.
03:49We've seen people get updates from their security cameras
03:52that make it sound like there's a home invasion happening.
03:55And AI botched BBC headlines so badly
03:58that Apple is actually changing how it presents the summaries.
04:02The summary text is in italics now,
04:04so you can clearly see at a glance what is AI.
04:07That's probably a good idea.
04:09Siri has a role to play in all this.
04:12It has a new glowing border,
04:14and it can understand the flow of natural language a bit better,
04:17so you don't have to use your yelling-at-a-robot voice as much.
04:21But it's basically the same old Siri for now,
04:23except that when you ask it a complex question,
04:26it can go ask ChatGPT for you.
04:29Go ask ChatGPT what the weather's like in Spain,
04:33in Barcelona, in late February.
04:35Here's an answer from ChatGPT.
04:37Here's an answer from ChatGPT.
04:39Oh.
04:41Spain experiences mild winter temperatures.
04:44So what should I pack for a trip in late February?
04:47Here's an answer from ChatGPT.
04:49There's a lot of text here.
04:52ChatGPT extends to visual intelligence too.
04:55On the iPhone 16, using the camera control
04:58will let you take a picture
05:00and get information about what you're looking at.
05:02This could be something like store hours or a quick translation,
05:06or you can have ChatGPT answer more complicated questions
05:09like, what can I make with these ingredients?
05:12So it told me I can make a salad or an omelette,
05:16which those are both good answers,
05:19but I don't feel like I needed artificial intelligence to tell me that.
05:23It can still make mistakes though, just like any chatbot.
05:26ChatGPT in visual intelligence told me
05:28I had a whole bunch of books on my shelf that just weren't there.
05:32I asked it to explain a Garfield cartoon to me,
05:35and it actually made up a joke that wasn't in the comic.
05:38It's interesting being able to access ChatGPT right from the operating system,
05:42and maybe that kind of opens up the sort of questions that will ask Siri.
05:47But personally, I forget that it's there.
05:50And that's where we're at now.
05:52We have a bunch of features that are kind of helpful,
05:55kind of funny, but mostly forgettable.
05:58If this is what the iPhone 16 was built for,
06:01then it doesn't feel very intelligent.
06:04Is this anything?
06:06The thing is, it's not everything.
06:09Apple has new features that it's planning on rolling out
06:12basically up until it releases iOS 19.
06:15And there's one update in particular that could make these smartphones feel a lot smarter,
06:20especially when it comes to Siri.
06:22iOS 18 actually has a framework called App Intents
06:26that will eventually let Siri take action in apps for you.
06:30For example, you'll be able to say,
06:32show me my photos of Stacey in New York wearing her pink coat.
06:36Then you might say, make this photo pop.
06:39And Siri will enhance it, and Siri will be able to take actions across apps.
06:44So you could say, add this to my note with Stacey's bio.
06:47And it will jump from the Photos app to the Notes app to make it happen.
06:51These are the things that could actually save us time using our phones,
06:55and it would deliver on the whole promise of a smart assistant.
06:59But we probably won't see these updates until the spring at the earliest.
07:03Right now, Apple Intelligence feels like a bunch of puzzle pieces
07:07that just haven't been put together.
07:09It really might be something.
07:11But it's just hard to say what.
07:13Yet.
07:15I'm going to be covering all the AI in all the phones this year,
07:19including everything else in iOS 18 all the way to iOS 19.
07:24So stay tuned, check out theverge.com, and we'll be in this together.
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