Unlocking Apple Intelligence: What Every Apple User Needs to Know

Apple Intelligence, Apple's AI platform, is tightly integrated throughout the company's operating systems and will likely change how you use your Apple devices. This article helps ensure that you know the answers to the most important questions.

What is the Apple Intelligence Release Date?

Perhaps the most important question about Apple's AI platform is: When does Apple Intelligence come out? Apple has announced that Apple Intelligence's release date is Oct. 2024. The AI platform comes with iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1.

Despite the Oct. 2024 release of Apple Intelligence, not every feature will be available then. Read on to find out which features will deliver on what timeline.

Are All Apple Intelligence Features Available at Launch?

Not every forthcoming Apple Intelligence feature will be available when the AI platform comes out in Oct. 2024. Apple is going to roll out Apple Intelligence features progressively.

In the first release of Apple Intelligence, expect the following features:

• Writing Tools, which rewrite, proofread, and summarize text in many of Apple's pre-installed apps.
• Memories, in the Photos app, lets users creates movies from still pictures via a text prompt, and search for photos by describing them.
• Clean Up, also in the Photos app, removes items from the backgrounds of images.
• Audio transcription and summaries are available in the Notes and Phone apps.
• Mail app enhancements that include a better Focus mode, email summaries and suggested replies, and a prioritized inbox.
• Siri enhancements to answer questions about the features and settings of Apple devices, to make Siri better able to handle users stumbling over words, and to remember the context of a user's current request relative to previous ones.

Features that are expected to arrive with later versions of Apple Intelligence before the end of 2024 include:

• Image Playground, which generates images.
• Image Wand, which can turn sketches into images and fill empty spaces in images.
• Genmoji, which generates new emojis based on photos or text descriptions.
  
• ChatGPT integration.

Features expected to be added to Apple Intelligence in 2025 and later include:

• Further Siri enhancements for awareness of what is onscreen and the user's personal context.

Which Phones Work With Apple Intelligence?

When Apple announced Apple Intelligence, it talked about the AI platform running on iPhone 15. That led to a misconception that Apple Intelligence is only on that device. In fact, the iPhone models that Apple Intelligence runs on are iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, all iPhone 16 models, and future iPhone models.

Other Apple devices besides iPhone will get Apple Intelligence. Apple has announced that both iPads and Macs that have the M1 processor and newer will also get it. While the company hasn't said anything about other product lines, it's not hard to imagine Apple TV or Apple Vision Pro also getting these features.

Will Apple Intelligence Work on Older Phones?

Only iPhone 15 Pro and newer can use Apple Intelligence because only those models have a processor powerful enough to deliver all of Apple Intelligence's features.

Apple

Is Apple Intelligence Private?

According to Apple, it is. Generally speaking, using most other AI platforms means the information you submit and prompts you generate go back to the AI platform and become part of its training data set and future outputs. You're giving the system your data every time you use it.

Apple says Apple Intelligence works differently. Most Apple Intelligence functions and requests are handled directly on your device, and those that can't be are sent to a private space on Apple's servers that no one—not even Apple—can access. This space is called Private Cloud Compute. Additionally, your data is not stored either in Private Cloud Compute or by Apple Intelligence on your device.

Apple also says that it only ever uses your data and prompts to respond to your requests, not as training data for anyone else and that its privacy measures can be audited.

Does Apple Intelligence Use ChatGPT?

While Apple does discuss ChatGPT when talking about its AI platform, it isn't built on ChatGPT. Apple Intelligence is a fully homegrown platform and Large Language Model (LLM) that doesn't need ChatGPT to function.

However, Apple has integrated ChatGPT into iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia 15 by allowing the user to submit prompts and requests from their devices to ChatGPT in one action. Still, you could use Apple Intelligence without ever accessing ChatGPT.

What Languages Does Apple Intelligence Support?

At launch, Apple Intelligence supports U.S. English only. Later, Apple Intelligence will add support for localized English in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, and the U.K.

Support for non-English languages is coming in 2025, with the first round including Chinese, French, Japanese, and Spanish.

Is Apple Intelligence Better for the Environment than Other AIs?

No. AI systems and LLMs consume huge amounts of electricity to power servers and processors (up to 10 times the power of regular servers, by some estimates), as well as water for cooling them. That extreme spike in energy consumption means that, despite Apple's claims of using renewable energy and becoming carbon-neutral within a decade, AI's impact on the environment is worse than the efforts to mitigate it.

These demands become even worse when using ChatGPT from Apple devices, as OpenAI (ChatGPT's creators) doesn't make the kinds of environmental pledges Apple does.