Apple may label iOS 18 artificial intelligence features as a beta preview, signaling Apple is still playing catch-up

In the latest edition of Mark Gurman’s newsletter for Bloomberg, he reports that Apple’s highly-anticipated AI features for iOS 18 and its other operating systems may be released with a ‘beta’ or ‘preview’ designation.

This is perhaps another sign that Apple was caught off-guard by the AI revolution, and its planned features for this cycle aren’t yet reliable or good enough to launch unqualified, without a beta label.

Apple is expected to adopt a multi-pronged approach, where some AI requests will be handled locally on device and other’s will be kicked off to Apple’s cloud infrastructure for processing.

On a task by task basis, code running locally will determine whether the device can handle the request or whether it needs to be relayed to the Apple backend. On-device handling may only be available for newer Apple devices, like the latest one or two generations of iPhone, iPad and Mac. Apple is also said to be preparing a special miniaturized on-device model intended for the Apple Watch.

AI-powered features will reportedly include summarization of text messages and notifications, voice memo transcriptions, AI photo editing, automatic suggested message replies and updates to Safari and Spotlight search. A revamp of Siri is also planned. Users will also apparently be able to make new emoji variations on the fly, thanks to generative AI.

The big question is how Apple will present its new AI strategy, given it spent so many years talking up the benefits of doing everything on device. But now in the era of generative AI, customers expect features that can currently only be handled by getting a large server cloud to do it.

Apple’s cloud will run on Apple silicon chips in its servers, but it’s still by definition less private than if the data never left your device in the first place.

iOS 18 will also separately incorporate a chatbot, powered by OpenAI’s ChatGPT technology. It seems Sam Altman may even appear during the WWDC video to announce the partnership. A partnership with Google for Gemini may also still be in the works.