The AI boom has introduced a lot of advances in technology.
After OpenAI created an arms race following the release of ChatGPT, pretty much other tech companies, large and small, started using the Large Language Model-powered chatbot, or create new ones.
Apple finally followed the trend, with a late debut of its own product it calls 'Apple Intelligence'.
While has always been into AI, but with Apple Intelligence, Apple was never too pronounced.
And this time, Apple has publicly unveiled the iPhone 16 Pro and the Pro Max, which bring Apple Intelligence front and center.
Apple is now signaling that it too can be part of the race.
At Apple's "Glowtime" event on September 9th, the company unveiled the brand new iPhone 16 series, which come with a A18 chip, designed specifically for the devices. The chip is optimized for running large generative models and features a neural engine that is twice as fast as its predecessor.
But like before, it's the Pro and the Pro Max versions that are the flagships of Apple's mobile technology this 2024.
The smartphones continue the Apple tradition of bringing physical changes only when it sees fit, in which this time, include Super Retina XDR OLED display, edge-to-edge display design but thinner borders, new colors, and more.
But what lies behind them that matters.
Underneath the phones' physical appearance, the two Pro devices come with Apple A18 Pro chip, built using a second-generation 3-nanometer process, which significantly enhanced their performance.
But what this particular chip does, is focusing on AI-related tasks.
With a 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU, the chip has a 16-core Neural Engine that accelerates machine learning capabilities, allowing for seamless integration of Apple Intelligence features.
With 8GB of LPDDR5 memory and storage options ranging from 128GB (256GB for Pro Max) to 1TB, Apple is certain that Apple Intelligence can run smooth, despite its hunger for computing power.
Read: Only Newer Apple Devices Can Use 'Apple Intelligence' Because It's 'Computationally Expensive'
Apple Intelligence, the highlight of Apple's 2024 mobile, introduces a suite of AI-driven capabilities.
The idea is to significantly enhance Siri's functionality, improving natural language understanding and introducing generative features such as custom emojis and Visual Intelligence, which can analyze photos and identify objects in real-time.
The high hardware requirement of Apple Intelligence is due to the fact that many of the AI capabilities, especially those that involve privacy-focused tasks, leverages on-device processing.
This minimizes data sharing with external servers, meaning that user data remains on users' phone, and is never ever sent to the internet.
Here, Apple with Apple Intelligence shows that Apple is only entering the game when it's ready.
Tracing back to the past, rivals that include Google and Microsoft, have all been in a hurry in putting generative AI in pretty much all of their products. The goal is to reach as many users as possible, profiting from the trend.
Apple took a different strategy, and took its time.
However, it's worth noting that users who had early access to Apple Intelligence, said that some of the AI features are still quite buggy, and is still way behind the likes of Google Gemini and Samsung Galaxy AI