Apple on Monday unveiled an overhaul of artificial intelligence for the iPhone and turned to Google for help two years after the company stumbled with a first attempt.
The presentation marked Apple CEO Tim Cook’s final appearance at the company’s annual developer conference: Cook will hand over the reins to veteran executive John Ternus in September.
Cook announced two years ago at the same conference that Apple was taking a big step toward embracing AI, in a program called Apple Intelligence, as the company faced pressure to join the AI race that had engulfed rival American tech giants.
But its promised launch never fully occurred, and a long-awaited update to the Siri voice assistant failed to materialize despite the announcements, prompting a lawsuit from some American customers that the company settled earlier this year.
Apple’s more deliberate pace in entering the AI frenzy has earned praise from some analysts, who credit the company for staying clear of the hundreds of billions of dollars in infrastructure spending committed by its rivals to develop AI capability.
The company underlined this narrative at the event and said it was taking its time to get the technology right.
“AI is an incredibly powerful technology with the potential to profoundly shape society and, with the right care, unlock significant benefits for people everywhere,” Apple software chief Craig Federighi said in a launch video.
“Still, some seem to be moving forward, seemingly pursuing AI for AI’s sake, without clear consideration for the people…it is ultimately intended to serve.”
The company again promised a strengthened Siri, called Siri AI, with the ability to naturally communicate and track information through apps like Maps and Mail and perform tasks.
Many of the advancements Apple announced on Monday have already been rolled out by Google for individual users, with AI-powered features added to Gmail, Maps and its Android operating system for smartphones and tablets.
“Apple is making a huge bet on AI, but their bet is that they don’t need to spend hundreds of billions a year on AI infrastructure… to reap the benefits,” said John Gruber, a closely watched blogger who follows Apple.
Instead of building models internally, Apple hired Google to provide the AI capabilities for its new capabilities, using a version of the search engine giant’s Gemini model rather than any internally developed technology.
Google and Apple are already closely linked, with Google paying tens of billions of dollars each year to be the default search engine in the iPhone’s Safari web browser.
Apple also touted its parental controls as tech companies face growing pressure around the world over child safety and screen addiction.
These included strengthened tools to allocate time to children, with special attention to social networks and games.
Despite the company’s lack of a competitive AI offering, Apple stock has largely defied gravity over the past two years, and shares are up about 15% this year.
In the first quarter of this year, sales of Apple’s iPhone grew double digits in almost all the countries where it operates.
