The Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (AAPL) kicked off Monday, June 10, with a keynote from CEO Tim Cook at the company’s headquarters in Cupertino, California. WWDC 2024 is one of Apple’s most anticipated events of the year and is intended to serve as the starting point for the company’s big push into generative AI.
Wall Street has been keen to see what Apple has done in recent months as its rivals begin rolling out or, in some cases, scaling up their own generative AI offerings. Apple has remained largely silent on AI discussions, aside from passing mentions on earnings calls and the like.
During the company’s Q2 call in May, Cook appeared to address potential AI news from WWDC while touting Apple’s capabilities in both hardware and software.
“We believe in the transformative power and promise of AI and believe we have the advantages that will set us apart in this new era, including the unique combination of Apple’s seamless integration of hardware, software and services and Apple’s industry-leading silicon synergy. leading neural solutions,” he said. “Our unwavering focus is on privacy.”
As if that wasn’t enough, Apple CMO Greg Joswak posted WWDC earlier on Twitter It will be “absolutely incredible!” Make sure to capitalize both words. Take it? Amnesty International
In addition to unveiling its larger AI strategy, Apple will also unveil the latest versions of various operating systems, including iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, macOS, tvOS, and the first major updates to the company’s VisionOS system, which supports Vision Pro for mixed reality. headphones
However, Apple’s AI will almost certainly take a backseat to everything else in the news.
Siri is getting smarter
According to Apple’s Mark Gurman at Bloomberg, the highlight of WWDC 2024 will be a new AI-powered version of Apple’s intelligent assistant Siri. This feature allows Siri to control individual functions within apps, making it far more versatile than Siri on your current iPhone.
Siri has struggled over the years to prove itself more useful for setting timers and playing songs on Spotify than being a true digital assistant. But the generative AI version of Siri promises a truly intelligent assistant that can give you everything from proactive suggestions to advanced answers to random questions that pop into your head throughout the day.
Bloomberg Gorman He also said that Apple’s AI feature, known as Apple Intelligence, will affect a range of other apps, including Messages, Notes and Safari.
How Apple will make a smart Siri work remains an open question. According to reports from Bloomberg, The Wall Street JournalAnd The New York TimesApple has negotiated with OpenAI to license its GPT software and has had separate negotiations with Google (GOOG, GOOGL) to license its Gemini software.
Connecting with both companies can be complicated. OpenAI already works closely with Microsoft ( MSFT ), which is separating its PC business from Apple by boasting that some Windows 11 features are supported by GPT-4o. Google now uses its Gemini AI model on its Android smartphones, which compete directly with Apple’s iPhone. Google is working with Samsung to provide AI software for that company’s Galaxy phone line.
It will also be interesting to see whether consumers or Wall Street get more excited about Apple’s AI rollout. Investors and analysts have been waiting for Apple to respond to the explosion in generative AI, but so far there have been relatively few consumer use cases.
If Apple rolls out some well-developed features, it’s unlikely to urge consumers to drop everything and buy a new iPhone in September, when the company unveils its latest phones. Instead, most consumers will likely wait until they see a hardware upgrade they’ve been waiting for or until their current phone becomes unbearably slow before purchasing a new device.
As for iPadOS and macOS, you can expect Apple to bring the same AI features it’s adding to iOS in those operating systems as well. Overall, I expect Apple to be quite cautious with its AI efforts. The company is very attuned to how consumers view its products, and given the setbacks rivals like Google and Microsoft have faced with their own AI stumbles, it’s hard to imagine Apple announcing anything it wouldn’t miss entirely.
Beyond AI, Apple is also expected to unveil Rich Communications Services (RCS) for the iPhone. This means users can finally send high quality photos and videos to their Android friends. RCS is more secure than the SMS standard that Apple currently uses to send SMS from iPhone to Android.
Gorman also said that Apple will eventually allow app icons to be arranged on the iPhone’s home screen however they like, instead of sticking to the traditional grid layout.
More announcements are sure to come from the Big Show, and Yahoo Finance will be live to bring you the latest news.
Email Daniel Hawley [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @Daniel Holley.
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