Apple may not release its own generative chatbot in iOS 18

A Siri icon superimposed on Apple Park

WWDC 2024 is just a few months away, and the company is gearing up to discuss artificial intelligence — but one key Apple-made feature may not make its debut in iOS 18.

Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference is set to kick off on June 10, with the company planning to unveil its strategy for artificial intelligence. We're expecting to see AI improvements to Siri, though the company hasn't divulged many of its plans yet.

However, Bloomberg notes that while iOS 18 is expected to be an ambitious overhaul, the iPhone-based operating system will not see the addition of a generative AI chatbot. Instead, the updates will focus on new proactive features to assist users in everyday tasks.

That doesn't mean that there won't be chatbots available, though. The company may also be gearing up to announce an AI-based App Store at WWDC, according to analysts.

This is in line with other rumors we've heard. It was reported that the Cupertino-based tech giant is allegedly in talks with Google to license Gemini AI for the iPhone.

It's not clear if Apple has already struck a deal with Baidu for generative AI technologies in China, though.

Follow AppleInsider on Google News

5 Comments

Massiveattack87

said about 1 month ago

Not surprised at all.
Siri remains dummy.

OnPartyBusiness

said about 1 month ago

I’m hoping that the fact that the WWDC announcement is in siri’s own colors means that Siri will be the heaviest feature of AI at the conference.

mattinoz

said about 1 month ago

Apple doesn't do toys - if they use Generative AI it will be to make tasks happen for the customer. Not just spew a wall of text with buzzwords that align to a topic with no factual regard for the topic.

After all, that is what a Chatbot do currently, which is why they are loved by marketing and teams.
It doesn't seem like it is worth Apple's while to try and get to that next benchmark, but there would be a lot of value in helping developers leverage that work to get there.
Developer tools in AI rumours make sense for Apple. Any feature that is customer-facing will not be branded AI outside of bullet point on a slide with maybe a nice graphic.

40domi

said about 1 month ago

mattinoz said:

Apple doesn't do toys - if they use Generative AI it will be to make tasks happen for the customer. Not just spew a wall of text with buzzwords that align to a topic with no factual regard for the topic.

After all, that is what a Chatbot do currently, which is why they are loved by marketing and teams.
It doesn't seem like it is worth Apple's while to try and get to that next benchmark, but there would be a lot of value in helping developers leverage that work to get there.
Developer tools in AI rumours make sense for Apple. Any feature that is customer-facing will not be branded AI outside of bullet point on a slide with maybe a nice graphic.

Totally agree with your comments.
All of the AI features on the Pixel & Samsung are just novelties or just don't work very well.
Examples;
Pixel best take (in theory a very good feature I would like) in practice only works 50% of the time at best and it takes for ever and not very secure because it only works off devise.
Samsung web search from a photo 🤣, has anyone ever really looked at a photo and thought, I wish I could search the web from that?
Samsung AI speech translator (great in theory) but doesn't work 🤣
Android split screen, I have trouble sometimes seeing docs in my split screen on a 14" MacBook, it's impossible on a screen less than half that, which is why Apple hasn't done it!
Always on display, for years Apple resisted it and everyone moaned about it, why did Apple resist it? because of the 15/20% extra battery drain, in a world where everyone moans about the lack of battery life, what happens when Apple finally do it (probably against their better judgement) 90% of users have it turned off 🤣
There are many, many more examples, but I won't go on.

avon b7

said about 1 month ago

40domi said:

mattinoz said:

Apple doesn't do toys - if they use Generative AI it will be to make tasks happen for the customer. Not just spew a wall of text with buzzwords that align to a topic with no factual regard for the topic.

After all, that is what a Chatbot do currently, which is why they are loved by marketing and teams.
It doesn't seem like it is worth Apple's while to try and get to that next benchmark, but there would be a lot of value in helping developers leverage that work to get there.
Developer tools in AI rumours make sense for Apple. Any feature that is customer-facing will not be branded AI outside of bullet point on a slide with maybe a nice graphic.

Totally agree with your comments.
All of the AI features on the Pixel & Samsung are just novelties or just don't work very well.
Examples;
Pixel best take (in theory a very good feature I would like) in practice only works 50% of the time at best and it takes for ever and not very secure because it only works off devise.
Samsung web search from a photo 🤣, has anyone ever really looked at a photo and thought, I wish I could search the web from that?
Samsung AI speech translator (great in theory) but doesn't work 🤣
Android split screen, I have trouble sometimes seeing docs in my split screen on a 14" MacBook, it's impossible on a screen less than half that, which is why Apple hasn't done it!
Always on display, for years Apple resisted it and everyone moaned about it, why did Apple resist it? because of the 15/20% extra battery drain, in a world where everyone moans about the lack of battery life, what happens when Apple finally do it (probably against their better judgement) 90% of users have it turned off 🤣
There are many, many more examples, but I won't go on.
"has anyone ever really looked at a photo and thought, I wish I could search the web from that?"

Absolutely all the time. That's why this feature has been around for years now. It is simply improving over time and more AI backend work is making it better. Also audio identification.

Speech translator, image recognition, photo/movie enhancement etc are fine as long as they get better over time.

Even at 50% success, it's better than zero and if you're in a situation where you understand zero of a foreign language, you'd jump at the chance of a 50% success rate.

If you use Siri you are most definitely falling foul to your own criticisms.

AI has improved greatly in a surprisingly short period of time. Short enough for Apple to not even want to pronounce the dreaded two letters to making it Absolutely Incredible for WWDC. That is because Apple got taken by surprise by the whole thing and now, 12 months on can't even think about another 'ML' WWDC.

Why do you think that is?