iOS 18 tipped to debut Appleās new generative AI ā and thatās good news for Siri
Rumors have been swirling for months that Apple is planning to introduce a ChatGPT rival into all of its best iPhones, and those whispers have just been boosted by a brand-new report that lends weight to the idea.
According to industry analyst Jeff Pu (via MacRumors), we could see the so-called āApple GPTā chatbot launch as soon as late 2024. That means it might make it into iOS 18 and the iPhone 16, potentially bringing generative artificial intelligence (AI) to Appleās devices sooner than expected.
However, before we all get too excited, Pu warned that weāll need to be patient with the rollout of Appleās AI. Thatās because Apple wants to make sure it avoids some of the privacy lapses that have befallen AI apps recently, and doing that might take time.
Pu added that his sources have told him that Apple plans to build several hundred AI servers this year, with considerably more following in 2024.Ā
The finished product could combine cloud AI with on-device processing in a way that safeguards user privacy, Pu believes.
A massive boost for Siri
The report doesnāt give too much detail on what Apple plans to do with its generative AI, but other analysts have put forth a few ideas. Most prominently, news outlet The Information has suggested that AI could be woven into Siri to make Appleās virtual assistant far more useful than it currently is.
Apple CEO Tim Cook has even publicly acknowledged that the company has been working on generative AI āfor years.ā He added that āweāre going to approach it really thoughtfully and think about it deeply, because weāre fully aware of the not-good uses that it can have, and the issues around bias and hallucination and so forth.ā
Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more.
That suggests Puās 2024 release date might be a little optimistic. As well as that, fellow analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has previously claimed that Appleās AI progress was āsignificantly behind its competitors,ā suggesting that the company has a long way to go before itās ready to launch its AI.
Regardless of when Apple GPT makes an appearance, itās clear that Apple is pouring a lot of effort into challenging ChatGPT and releasing something better. If itās due out in iOS 18, we might even see a sneak peek at Appleās Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June 2024.
You might also like

Alex Blake has been fooling around with computers since the early 1990s, and since that time he's learned a thing or two about tech. No more than two things, though. That's all his brain can hold. As well as TechRadar, Alex writes for iMore, Digital Trends and Creative Bloq, among others. He was previously commissioning editor at MacFormat magazine. That means he mostly covers the world of Apple and its latest products, but also Windows, computer peripherals, mobile apps, and much more beyond. When not writing, you can find him hiking the English countryside and gaming on his PC.