Apple may have arrived late to the artificial intelligence party. Still, the tech giant is making a grand entrance with “Apple Intelligence,” a new suite of AI features that promise to revolutionize the iPhone, Mac and iPad experience — all while keeping your data under lock and key.
At its annual Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday (June 10), Apple unveiled a smarter, chattier Siri, custom AI-generated “Genmoji,” and a GPT-4o lifeline for when Siri is over its virtual head. It’s a bold move for a company that once avoided the term “artificial intelligence” like the plague. Still, Apple is betting that it can deliver AI without compromising user privacy.
“We’re thrilled to introduce a new chapter in Apple innovation. Apple Intelligence will transform what users can do with our products — and what our products can do for our users,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook. “Our unique approach combines generative AI with a user’s context to deliver truly helpful intelligence. And it can access that information in a completely private and secure way to help users do the things that matter most to them. This is AI, as only Apple can deliver it, and we can’t wait for users to experience what it can do.”
The secret sauce to AI privacy, Apple style? On-device processing. Apple promises that most of the heavy lifting for its AI features will happen right on the device, ensuring that data remains personal. As Apple puts it, “Apple Intelligence” will be “aware of your personal data without collecting your personal information.” Of course, you’ll need a top-of-the-line A17 Pro or M-series chip to reap the benefits.
When your queries require more oomph, Apple has a trick up its sleeve: “private cloud computing.” Your data may take a brief trip to a secure server for processing, but it won’t set up camp there. This commitment to privacy sets Apple apart from rivals like OpenAI, which have faced criticism for collecting user inputs to train their AI models.
What can “Apple Intelligence” actually do? For starters, Siri is getting a major IQ boost. Expect more natural language recognition (even when you change your mind mid-sentence), the ability to write instructions to Siri by double-tapping your lock screen, and a knack for understanding context across apps.
Siri will also be able to lend a hand within apps, like adding photos to draft emails, sharing event photos with specific contacts, or summarizing meeting notes for your colleagues. This “on-screen awareness” is made possible by Siri’s ability to grab relevant info from your photos, calendar events, files, and messages — including those pesky PDF concert tickets and shared links.
But Siri isn’t the only one getting an AI makeover. Apple is rolling out email suggestions and text summaries in Mail, system-wide writing assistance, and “Genmoji” for those times when words just won’t cut it. The Photos app also gets an AI injection, with improved object search and features like the ability to erase unwanted photobombers.
For budding artists, “Image Playground” will let you generate AI images across multiple apps, while developers can join the fun with an API.
However, the most interesting revelation is Apple’s partnership with OpenAI. Later this year, ChatGPT 4o will be integrated into iOS, macOS, and iPadOS, and it will be ready to tag in when Siri taps out (with your permission, of course). While Apple is starting with the crème de la crème of chatbots, it promises to play nice with other AI models down the line.
With “Apple Intelligence,” Apple is betting big on AI while doubling down on privacy. It’s a delicate balancing act, but if anyone can pull it off, it’s the company that built an empire on making the complex feel effortless. As the AI arms race heats up, Apple is ready to show the world that it can innovate without sacrificing its values.
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Intel’s new CEO, Lip-Bu Tan, is clear-eyed about the chipmaker’s many problems and the tough road ahead as he engineers a turnaround to revive this legendary Silicon Valley company.
“This is an iconic and essential company that is important for the industry and also to the United States,” Tan said in a keynote address at Intel’s conference in Las Vegas this week.
The nuclear physicist, who dropped out of the Ph.D. program at MIT, is best known for transforming Cadence Design Systems into a robust chip design and software company. He was also a board member at Intel.
“We fell behind on innovation. We have been too slow to adapt to meet your needs. You deserve better, and we need to improve, and we will,” Tan told his audience of customers and vendors. “Please be brutally honest with us.”
Tan called this juncture a “defining moment” for the legendary chipmaker.
Intel was once the world’s most valuable chipmaker — a crown that would go to Nvidia. With its “Intel Inside” branding, it was the first chipmaker to become a household name. In the 1990s, Intel and Windows became so dominant in PCs that the pair were called “Wintel.” Intel founder Gordon Moore’s “Moore’s Law” still stands 60 years after it was created.
Intel’s troubles began in the mid-2010s, when it started missing key product deadlines and struggled to advance to 10nm manufacturing, allowing rivals like TSMC and AMD to overtake it in performance and efficiency. Once the industry leader, Intel became hampered by internal bureaucracy, a rigid culture, and a hardware-first mindset that lagged behind a software- and artificial intelligence (AI)-driven future, while competitors like ARM and Nvidia thrived.
Intel also famously turned down Apple’s request to make chips for the iPhone, paving the way for Qualcomm. In the third quarter of 2024, Intel posted its largest quarterly loss of $16.6 billion, including a $15.9 billion charge to reflect lower valuations and costs to lay off 15,000 employees.
Now there are even reports of Intel as a takeover target — humiliating for a tech icon. “Intel Corp.’s fall from market dominance to takeover target is a tale marked by missed opportunities and rising expenses,” wrote Iuri Struta, senior research associate at S&P Global Market Intelligence, in a blog post. In 2020, Intel was the second most valuable chipmaker. As of last September, it had fallen to 14th place, he said.
Tan understands the enormity of his task to turn around Intel. “We have a lot of hard work ahead. We have fallen short of your expectations. I will pull together strong teams to correct the past mistakes and start to earn your trust,” he said. “I will not be satisfied until we delight all of you.”
Read more: Intel Faces Potential Breakup as Broadcom and TSMC Explore Deals
Tan faces a big challenge in reviving a company with decades of inertia to lead in a market that now moves at hyperspeed. His four areas of focus are: changing the culture, strengthening the core business, incubating and growing new business, and building customer trust.
Tan said he will bring Intel back to its roots: an engineering-focused company. He promised to meet with engineers even six to seven levels down from the C-suite to hear their ideas and unleash their creativity. Tan also promised to retain and attract key talent, which had been leaving Intel.
Tan said Intel needs to adopt a startup culture to innovate, where every day is Day One. His weekends are filled with meetings with engineers and software architects who have “brilliant” ideas and who “want to change the world. That’s when I get excited to work closely with them,” Tan said.
Tan also plans to simplify the way Intel works because “bureaucracy kills innovation.” The startup mindset will enable them to act with speed.
“We are operating in a very dynamic, fast-moving industry. Technology adoptions and disruption are accelerating faster than ever. This is being driven by the one transformational force called AI,” Tan said.
Intel will target three AI areas: cloud AI, generative and agentic AI, and physical AI such as robotics. To that end, Tan said Intel will spin off non-core business divisions but did not name which ones.
To right its operations, Tan said Intel must change the way it makes products. The company used to start by making hardware — chips — and then developing the software to make it work. “The world has changed. You have to flip that around,” Tan said. “You start with the problem, what you’re trying to solve. … Then we work backwards from there.”
Tan also addressed Intel’s product and foundry priorities. In client computing, he reaffirmed a commitment to innovation, noting the competitive landscape has shifted and Intel must not “stand still.” Pushing forward with AI-enhanced PCs, the company aims to ship its next-generation Panther Lake processors on its 18A process node later this year.
Perhaps most critically, Tan confirmed Intel’s ambitions to manufacture chips for customers around the world. “Foundry is a service business that is built on the foundational principle of trust,” he said.
At this stage in his career, Tan said he has been asked why he would take on one of the most difficult jobs in tech.
“The answer is very simple. I love this company,” Tan said, with tears in his eyes. “It was very hard for me to watch it struggle. I simply cannot stay on the sidelines knowing that I could help turn things around.”
Photo: Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan. Credit: Intel livestream
