Apple’s WWDC keynote contents appear online, and it reveals a very controlled approach to AI

With WWDC just days away, people have been speculating what Apple will show during its yearly keynote. We’ve heard hints and snippets from different sources, and they all agree that the company won’t use WWDC to announce any new hardware. Instead, it’ll be more about software, services, and – the star of the show – Apple’s AI tools. Now, details of what Apple will announce during WWDC have appeared online, and while people may be getting sick and tired of AI-related announcements, the tech giant’s approach seems to be a breath of fresh air.

Apple’s WWDC 2024 content appears online

Source: Apple

Bloomberg reported on all of the points that Apple will cover during WWDC 2024. As you might expect, AI is taking center stage here, with a new service making a debut called “Apple Intelligence” as a fun pun on the AI initialism. Some of the details revealed were bits we’ve heard before when we covered the company’s plans to introduce AI-generated emoji onto iOS; for example, while Apple wants to get AI onto all of its apps, it wants to do so in a way that helps the end consumer and doesn’t focus on flashy technology such as drawing images or generating videos.

However, there was this interesting tidbit:

The new capabilities will be opt-in, meaning Apple won’t make users adopt them if they don’t want to. The company will also position them as a beta version. The processing requirements of AI will mean that users need an iPhone 15 Pro or one of the models coming out this year. If they’re using iPads or Macs, they’ll need models with an M1 chip at least.

The latter part was to be expected. Because Apple is aiming for on-hardware processing, the AI service needs a sufficiently powerful device to run off of. This is the same case with Microsoft’s Copilot+ PCs, so the requirement of a recent device isn’t something special. However, Apple making its AI features opt-in should be a great breath of relief for people who dislike using these tools, as it appears the company won’t force users to have AI tools running on their hardware if they don’t want them.

The notes also confirm the recent rumor that Apple and OpenAI are teaming up. The latter has been a good partner for Microsoft in recent months, giving it advanced GPT models to use with the Redmond giant’s Copilot chatbot. Now Apple evens the playing field with this partnership, but it risks drawing the ire of its users who respect Apple’s previously stalwart stance against cloud-based processing.

So, where is Apple adding its Apple Intelligence service? The statement lists a good range of apps: webpage summation for Safari, automatic replies for Messages, a big AI model revamp for Siri, GitHub Copilot integration for Xcode, automatic email sorting for the Mail app, transcribing voice memos, image editing in Photos, and the aforementioned AI-generated emoji. As such, expect a lot of the keynote to be Apple jumping between different apps and showing off what Apple Intelligence can do in each.

WWDC 2024 won’t just be about AI, though

Still not a fan of Apple’s approach to AI? Don’t fret, there’s still plenty to look forward to in the non-AI section. iOS 18 will let people move app icons off of the pre-set grid and customize the icon’s appearance to their liking. The aging Settings app is getting a tune-up on iOS, iPadOS, and macOS, and the Messages app will get effects that trigger when you send specific words. The iCloud Keychain service is becoming the Passwords app, which will appear on iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS 15. And there are going to be new retro-themed wallpapers for iOS and macOS that bring the systems back to the heyday of Apple.

If you want to watch along, tune in to the WWDC website on the 10th of June at 10am PDT for all of the info. And if you can’t make it, we’ll be hard at work reporting on everything Apple announces as the event goes on, so stay tuned.