Those who keep track of Apple know this well: the company doesn’t care much about being first when it comes to technology. Instead, even when it’s not first, it introduces technology that is unique and implemented relatively differently than the rest of the world. The most recent example of this: Apple Intelligence which the company introduced at WWDC 2024.

But before that, a little history lesson. Do you know who introduced the first touchscreen smartphone? You might say Apple, but that’s not correct. It was IBM that introduced the Simon phone in 1994. Simon was a huge technological leap. We got to see how the device would be controlled by tapping directly on the display. But Simon didn’t start the era of touchscreen phones. That had to wait until the iPhone came out in 2007. The iPhone was smarter and better. Apple used an old technology – the touch screen – but used it in a way that was unique and started something new.

It’s possible that the arrival of Apple Intelligence could mark a similar moment for generative AI. That’s because even though on the surface Apple Intelligence seems similar to OpenAI ChatGPT and Google Gemini, it’s obviously doing things differently. And by doing things differently, Apple is showing how simple, powerful, and private AI can be.

And to understand this, let’s look below the surface.

Apple Intelligence is personal AI

So far we know how to use ChatGPT and how it works in terms of user interface. There is an app, the new GPT-4o has a voice assistant to help, Dall-E creates images and other similar things. So, we know that to use AI we can open these apps or websites and work with text prompts or voice commands.

However, with the introduction of Apple Intelligence, Apple is showing a difference. It is integrating AI in a much more fundamental way inside its iPhone and Mac and iPad. This means there is not going to be a separate Apple Intelligence app – although there is a new Siri in a way – but AI features and tools will be available in various apps. Users will summon the AI ​​whenever they need it, for example while writing in Mail, iMessages or Pages. Similarly, Apple AI will keep track of a lot of your data – such as daily information like the date of your next flight or an entry in your calendar or a reminder or someone’s request in your messages – and then tie it to one place so that it can give you the information when it’s needed. So you’ll be able to ask “what time is my flight” and your iPhone will respond.

Overall Apple Intelligence is a kind of new brain in supported Apple devices that can follow the user’s conversation or allow them to control their device in a completely new and smart way. And instead of introducing a completely new platform to use AI like ChatGPT, Apple decided to simply integrate AI within the apps that are already being used by millions of people.

Also, in order for an AI chatbot like ChatGPT to be used and work correctly, you need to provide prompts. However, preparing prompts is not everyone’s cup of tea, and with confusing prompts, these AI chatbots can do all sorts of nonsense. Apple Intelligence aims to make it simple. With just a few words, images, and one-word prompts, the Apple AI will understand the user’s needs. So instead of those long prompts for ChatGPT, Apple’s AI shortens the prompts to quick and easy actions.

The privacy we were looking for

Companies like OpenAI and Google, Meta, and others are using user data and signals from chatbots to train their AI models. This move has certainly raised concerns about privacy among users. Eventually, the perception was that to get help from AI, you have to compromise your privacy. However, with Apple Intelligence, Apple has finally brought on-device processing. With its chips like the A17 Pro, M1, M2, M3, and M4, Apple says its AI will use on-device processing to generate its responses.

And when it needs more power, it will rely on a “private cloud computing” system that Apple has built specifically for Apple Intelligence. This system – Apple calls it Private Compute – will ensure that not even Apple can save or access user data. Only the device – the iPhone or Mac on which you are trying to use Apple Intelligence – will connect to the Private Compute and data sharing between the two machines will be fully encrypted and in complete privacy.

External assistance but only if you agree to it

Yes, ChatGPT is going to be part of the Apple Intelligence system. But Apple is saying that most of the AI ​​functionality will be powered not by ChatGPT but by its own larger language model. Still, if you need to use ChatGPT users will be able to access it. But when you do, Apple will apparently ask for user consent before offloading the AI ​​task to ChatGPT. So if you need help from ChatGPT while typing or using Siri, Apple Intelligence will suggest that ChatGPT can help, but only if you say yes to it.