apple The full extent of the intelligence is emerging before our eyes this week as iOS 18.2. Across the iPhone landscape (at least those that can support Apple’s brand of artificial intelligence), millions of people are experiencing their iPhone’s ability to transform themselves into cartoon characters and create fantastic mashups and strange scenes through Image Playground.
I am not immune to this temptation. I used Image Playground to turn me into a wizard that I could share with my unimpressed wife, who told me, “I don’t need this in my life.” Later, I created a little wizard, Genmoji Lance, who I You can use it as a message emoticon. Maybe she would prefer that.
Conversations are still not Siri’s strong suit.
At times, Apple’s commitment to its Apple Intelligence work seems almost tentative. For example, find the Genmoji beta. It’s hidden first under the emoji in Messages, then under a smaller version of the icon, with a small “+” next to the “Describe Emoji” field. It’s an interesting tool; why hide its light under a bushel?
After spending too much time on Image Playground and Genmoijis, I turned my attention to Siri and remained unimpressed.
Apple’s late entry into the generative AI space means there’s more pressure on Apple to bring something truly useful to the space, and, let’s be honest, neither Genmoji nor Image Playground is that. They’re fun, but when Apple first launched Global Developers Conference 2024 This is how your iPhone (and Mac and iPad) become more self-aware.
In a press release from Apple Intelligence, Apple Promise Siri will be “able to perform hundreds of new actions in Apple and third-party apps.” Apple claims I can ask Siri to “send a photo of Saturday’s barbecue to Malia and Siri will take care of it.”
To be fair, Apple has stated that Apple Intelligence will launch in late 2024 to 2025. Open artificial intelligence Numerous updates are released almost daily (see OpenAI 12 days).
Some of Apple’s most powerful AI tricks aren’t even its own.
On the other hand, the lack of clarity about what exactly our current version of Siri will do is frustrating. Siri looks completely different now, and it’s cute, but it’s basically the same as a facelift, and the underlying bone structure is basically the same.
Siri still struggles to hold conversations, and when I tried to copy a photo request asking Siri to send photos from a recent holiday party to my wife, Siri simply told me, “I can only send screenshots from here.” That’s not even close to understanding the system. And it goes a long way to actually being helpful. At the very least, I hope Siri can guess which recent photos I’m talking about.
In Photos, when I asked Siri to “turn on screenshots” (since I now have a hard time finding the album in the redesigned Photos), Siri took a screenshot of the page. Thanks Siri, I’ll have a hard time finding another screenshot later.
Siri can now do a lot with this system. I just ask Siri to switch to dark mode. Digital assistants are better at channeling my grunts. I can open Home through Siri, but Siri can’t help me solve my home problems, which includes looking at my home network to see if there are other smart devices that aren’t part of the home system.
Siri is still very smart. I asked it what it was doing today, and it told me, “I’m thinking about eternity, and it takes forever.” But when I asked what that meant, Siri didn’t respond—conversations are still not Siri’s strong suit.
Likewise, third-party app integration and screen action awareness aren’t really a thing yet. For example, Siri can open “Threads,” but when I ask it to compose a new post, Siri gets stuck in “To whom?” ring shape. Since Threads is a public social media platform, the answer is “for everyone” and I got nothing from this request.
Some of Apple’s most powerful AI tricks aren’t even its own. iOS 18.2 brings Visual intelligence update for camera control (The new “button” on the side of the iPhone). Press firmly on Camera Control to launch a special image capture window. Press the shutter button and you’ll see two options: Ask or Search.
If you choose to ask, your query will be sent to OpenAI Chat GPTif you select “Search” it will go to Google. Both of these work well, but where is Apple Intelligence in this picture? Where is Siri? Apple can’t take other people’s artificial intelligence results as its own, right?
I know Apple Intelligence is a work in progress, but the brightest target for any generative AI platform remains chatbot. Voice assistants on platforms like Gemini and ChatGPT can hold long conversations and see what you’re seeing to understand context and take action.
Even after the iOS 18.2 update, Siri is nowhere near that. I know how careful Apple is with these things, but if it keeps checking its engine before pressing the gas pedal, it’s going to be left far behind by other AI racing cars. You can’t win the game when the game is over and you win.