iOS 18’s best AI tools are coming in December, but Siri will have to wait longer

The Apple Intelligence Toolkit witnessed a gradual combination of delayed features and unparalleled benefits. But it seems that the most promising set of AI tools that Apple introduced at WWDC earlier this year is just around the corner.

In its latest edition PowerOn newsletterBloomberg’s Mark Gurman writes that the iOS 18.2 update will start rolling out via the stable channel in the first week of December.

The aforementioned iteration of iOS is already at the stage of beta testing and introduced a trio of the most exciting AI updates for iPhone. Among them are Siri integration with OpenAI’s ChatGPTwhich smoothly offloads complex requests to the chatbot.

then, we have visual intelligencewhich allows users to point their phone’s camera at the world around them and get valuable information about everything that appears in the frame. In its current iteration, it can perform tasks such as identifying a dog’s breed or picking up details on a poster.

However, given the deep level of integration with the OpenAI stack, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Visual Intelligence get the same feature set as the latest iteration of ChatGPT, as well as its own multimodal insight capabilities.

iOS 18.2 beta also features tricks like standalone Image Playgrounds application which allows users to create fun images based on their own photos. A custom Genmoji system is also on the update table.

Gurman adds that with the iOS 18.4 update, Siri will finally reach the form that has fans excited for a true renaissance of the virtual assistant in the AI ​​age. “This should allow a digital assistant to connect to people’s data and respond to queries based on the information on their screens,” he writes.

Right now, Google’s Gemini can analyze local files, both text and media, and react based on the information it gleans from those files. Deep integration with Workspace is what allows AI to browse files in Google Drive and other key tools like Docs.

The Notebook LM tool is also capable of doing the same, and can even analyze YouTube videos as well as third-party web page URLs without requiring any subscription from users.

In Apple’s case, Siri – infused with an OpenAI technology stack – will be able to answer questions by pulling information from files and data stored locally on the phone. Imagine scenarios like retrieving travel information from email, schedule details from calendar entries, and business data from PDFs and spreadsheets.

However, the most utilitarian of these capabilities will be deeper integration with third-party applications. This will allow the virtual assistant to perform tasks in third-party applications based solely on voice or text commands.

In particular, Apple will also let users dive into the potential of other third-party tools like Gemini. In addition, Siri will also be able to provide answers based on the content on the screen.

iOS 18.4 is expected to arrive in April next year. This is the same window when Apple is expected to launch The next-generation iPhone SEwith a new design, a faster processor and support for Apple Intelligence.