Apple Intelligence will power your next iPhone, iPad or Mac with AI skills

Apple has confirmed that its AI system is called Apple Intelligence, and it's detailed some of the features you can expect future devices to come with.

Coming as part of iOS 18. iPadOS 18 and Mac Sequoia, the new system will introduce all manner of AI-powered capabilities to Apple devices – across multiple apps and services.

For example, you will be able to use generative AI to create images to send in Messages, using three different styles – animation, sketch and cartoon – in what Apple calls Image Playground. The same image creation tool can be used in other apps too, in order to easily add visuals to notes or documents.

You can also create your own Genmojis – where the system creates an emoji that looks like yourself or a friend, or just a character you describe.

Siri is another system that's been overhauled using Apple Intelligence. Not only does it get a new look, it can now be used conversationally. That includes contextual understanding of normal speech.

In fact, you don't even need to talk to the new Siri, you will be able to use text inputs instead – much like a chatbot from the likes of Google's Gemini system or ChatGPT.

And finally, Siri will work with Photos and other apps, even third-party software, so you can talk normally and the assistant will take actions. Say "bring up photos of Mat" and it will find all the images you have of that person. You can then say "make this photo pop" and it will enhance the pic.

There will be future features coming to Siri too, such as the ability to find information on stored images and then add it to forms – such as your ID number found in a scan of your passport or driving licence. And all through voice.

Also improved using Apple Intelligence will be the interaction with emails. You can let the AI reply to emails more easily, for example.

Apple's AI system will work both on the device itself – whether that be an iPhone, iPad or MacBook – and in the cloud for the more data intensive capabilities. It'll also integrate ChatGPT for free.

Apple Intelligence will be part of iOS 18, iPadOS 18 and the new macOS Sequoia when they are released later this year – likely September along with the iPhone 16 family.

It will also work on iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, and iPad and Mac with M1 and later. You'll need to set your device language to US English if you want to use the new Siri features, though.