Apple Intelligence & Private Cloud Compute are revealed
Following months of rumors, Apple Intelligence has finally arrived, and promises to provide users more than just generative images.
Apple Intelligence is a cross-platform AI initiative
Towards the end of Apple’s keynote for WWDC 2024, following its main operating system announcements, the company moved on to the main event. It discussed its often-rumored push into machine learning.
Named Apple Intelligence, the new addition is all about using large language models (LLMs) to handle tasks involving text, images, and in-app actions.
For a start, the system is able to summarize key notifications, showing users the most important items in a summary, based on context.
System-wide writing tools can write, proofread, and summarize text for users. This is available automatically across built-in apps and third-party apps.
Apple Intelligence can also create images, again for many built-in apps. This includes personalizable for conversations with specific contacts in Messages, for example.
These images are created in three styles: Sketch, Animation, and Realism.
It can also perform actions within apps on behalf of the user. For example, it could open Photos and show images of specific groups of people from a request.
Apple also says Apple Intelligence is grounded on the context of a request within a user’s data. For example, it could work out who family members are in relation to the user, and how meetings can overlap or clash.
A lot of this is based on on-device processing for security and privacy. The A17 Pro chip in the iPhone 15 Pro line is said to be powerful enough to handle this level of processing.
Private Cloud Compute
Many models are running on-device, but sometimes the processing requires in-cloud processing. This could be a security issue, but Apple’s method is different.
Private Cloud Compute allows Apple Intelligence to work in the cloud, while preserving security and privacy. Models are run on servers running Apple Silicon, using security aspects of Swift.
Processes on-device work out if the request is sent to cloud servers or if it can be handled locally.
Apple insists the servers are secure, that they don’t store user data, and use cryptographic elements to maintain security.
