(Reuters) – Apple did not once mention the word AI at its developers conference on Monday, but the iPhone-maker quietly added the technology that has taken Wall Street by storm to many of the features and updates it unveiled.
The omission was in contrast to how other tech giants such as Alphabet-owned Google and Microsoft have approached the hype recently, including talking about AI during earnings calls and at events on how they are embracing the technology.
Instead, Apple used words such as “transformer language model”, “machine learning” and “ML”, when talking about the company’s AI efforts.
The company unveiled a costly augmented-reality headset called the Vision Pro, which uses AI, while also adding AI for smaller, incremental upgrades to some of its products and apps.
Here are some of the products that received AI upgrades:
Product Feature
Journal New journaling app uses on-device machine
learning (ML) to suggest writing prompts based
on users’ data such as photos, location, music
and more.
Autocorrect Using an AI-powered language model and machine
learning, the improved functionality delivers
better predictive text recommendations, in
line with user’s writing style. The dictation
feature was also improved.
Voicemail Live voicemail, powered by on-device neural
engine, generates live transcript as the
caller records their message.
PDFs in iPad New iPadOS 17 uses machine learning to
identify fields in a PDF document, helping
users quickly fill them in.
Live Speech New accessibility feature allows users to type
what they want to say and have it read aloud
during phone, FaceTime and in-person
conversations.
Personal Gives users at risk of speech loss the option
voice to create a voice that sounds like theirs.
Photos app New ML features allow the iPhone to recognize
more photos of user’s favorite people, as well
as their cats and dogs.
Video New MacOS Sonoma introduces Presenter Overlay,
conferencing a video effect that shows the user on top of
the content they are sharing and triggers
certain chat reactions using hand gestures.
Audio New software update to AirPods delivers
technology personalized audio experience, including
automatically changing media settings based on
user’s preferences and environmental
conditions. During in-person interaction,
AirPods will automatically lower volume and
enhance voices in front, while reducing
background noise.
(Reporting by Yuvraj Malik, Chavi Mehta and Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru)
