Apple’s annual developer conference begins on Monday, but we already have an idea of what we can expect to see. One is an expected partnership with OpenAI to power AI features on Apple products, including an overhauled Siri that can essentially use your iPhone for you, analyzing your activity and using whatever app is needed to fulfil a command.
It will also bring Apple’s AI slow roll to an end. Industry watchers have been perplexed by an approach that has put the company far behind other tech giants in the AI race. It has made its fair share of acquisitions that have suggested big plans, especially in the buzzy area of on-device AI, but a report suggests a lack of resources and co-ordination made it stumble (and turn to OpenAI for help).
But generative AI is still young. With how popular iPhones and MacBooks are, scale alone might keep Apple from being left in the dust (that scale is also what OpenAI gets out of the deal). But putting AI in someone’s hands is only half the battle. Apple needs to make something useful enough — and that works well — if anyone is going to bother using the AI features it invested so much into.