Apple has finally stepped into the world of AI by announcing Apple Intelligence, the tech giant’s latest suite of AI features. With the release of iOS 18, the AI ​​features will gradually roll out to all Apple devices, including the iPhone. While users are eagerly waiting for the latest version of iOS 18, the excitement for Apple Intelligence has died down as Apple has revealed that it will only be available on the latest iPhones—the iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, and future models, possibly including the iPhone 16 Pro. While the new Pro models getting the AI ​​suite appears to be chip-related, and it certainly is according to Apple, older models may also support Apple Intelligence, but they will be nearly useless.

In an in-depth discussion on John Gruber’s podcast, “The Talk Show,” Apple’s head of AI strategy and machine learning, John Giannandrea, revealed that Apple decided to limit the rollout of Apple Intelligence because, while it’s technically possible to run on older devices, performance would be so slow that it would render the features practically useless. “Inference of large language models is incredibly computationally expensive,” he said. “It’s the combination of the bandwidth in the device, the size of the ANE (Apple Neural Engine) and the oomph in the device that really makes these models do it fast enough to be useful.”

This computational intensity means that only the most recent devices, equipped with Apple’s latest A17 chip and at least 8GB of RAM, have the power needed to run these advanced AI models efficiently. The A17 chip, with its advanced Neural Engine, is able to handle the demanding processing requirements of Apple intelligence. “Otherwise, we wouldn’t have had even recent iPads and Macs this smart, right,” Apple’s chief marketing officer Greg Joswiak reinforced the point by saying that the ban is not a ploy to boost sales, debunking the theory that Apple is leveraging AI features to promote device upgrades.

Apple Intelligence is not a standalone app or a chatbot like ChatGPT. Instead, it is an integrated layer of AI embedded within the operating system, designed to seamlessly enhance various functionalities. Once available, Apple Intelligence will include features like an all-new Siri, AI-assisted writing tools, real-time call transcripts, and the ability to create unique emojis. These functionalities require significant processing power and memory, which is why they have been reserved for the latest hardware.

While the restrictions on the availability of Apple Intelligence have undoubtedly frustrated many Apple users, particularly those with relatively recent models like the iPhone 14 Pro Max or even the standard iPhone 15, the primary constraint is memory, with 8GB of RAM being the minimum requirement to support these AI features. However, not getting these features is better than the disappointment of having features that don’t work properly, leading to even more frustration.