At its 2024 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), Apple announced a systemwide (Mac, iPhone, iPad) AI upgrade that will give users access to personalized generative artificial intelligence. The new Siri will be able to take action inside apps, figure out context clues, and more easily learn natural language. Siri will also begin to work with OpenAI’s ChatGPT (although this feature is optional), and app developers are being invited to create with the new AI tools. SpaceX founder Elon Musk said he would ban Apple devices at his companies if they were to integrate OpenAI with Apple operating systems.

Many tech experts have been hoping that Apple would integrate AI developer tools to iOS, especially because it would give the AI tools access to a wealth of personal information. The Wall Street Journal says this is thought to be the “holy grail” of AI.

Among the other items that Apple announced were iOS 18, updates for AirPods and tvOS for Apple TV, WatchOS 11, VisionOS 2, macOS Sequoia, and an Apple Passwords app.

Apple Intelligence will be ready for beta testing in fall 2024. 

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A new program called “Genmoji” will be able to generate custom emojis at a moment’s notice, as well as cartoon images in the vein of OpenAI’s Dall-E.

The new Siri will light up the sides of the iPhone and begin to understand personal questions, like who your child is or where your office is. You will be able to ask Siri what link someone sent weeks ago or what podcast a friend recommended, and will be able to search your pictures for specific people. It will even be able to guess what feature you have in mind if you don’t know the right word for it.

“If Apple integrates OpenAI at the OS level, then Apple devices will be banned at my companies,” Elon Musk threatened. “That is an unacceptable security violation.”

“And visitors will have to check their Apple devices at the door, where they will be stored in a Faraday cage,” he wrote in a follow-up post.


Shane Devine is a writer covering politics and business for VT and a regular guest on The Unusual Suspects. Follow Shane’s work here.

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