More details of the AI upgrades heading to iOS 18 have leaked

Artificial intelligence is clearly going to feature heavily in iOS 18 and all the other software updates Apple is due to tell us about on June 10, and new leaks reveal more about what's coming in terms of AI later in the year.

These leaks come courtesy of "people familiar with the software" speaking to AppleInsider, and focus on the generative AI capabilities of the Ajax Large Language Model (LLM) that we've been hearing about since last year.

AI-powered text summarization – covering everything from websites to messages – will apparently be one of the big new features. We'd previously heard this was coming to Safari, but AppleInsider says this functionality will be available through Siri too.

The idea is you'll be able to get the key points out of a document, a webpage, or a conversation thread without having to read through it in its entirety – and presumably Apple is going to offer certain assurances about accuracy and reliability.

Fast and private

Ajax will be able to generate responses to some prompts entirely on Apple devices, without sending anything to the cloud, the report says – and that chimes with previous rumors about everything running locally.

That's good for privacy, and for speed: according to AppleInsider, responses can come back in milliseconds. Tight integration with other Apple apps, including the Contacts app and the Calendar app, is also said to be present.

AppleInsider mentions that privacy warnings will be shown whenever Ajax needs information from another app. If a response from a cloud-based AI is required, it's rumored that Apple may enlist the help of Google Gemini or OpenAI's ChatGPT.

Spotlight on macOS will be getting "more intelligent results and sorting" too, AppleInsider says, and it sounds like most of the apps on iOS and macOS will be getting an AI boost. Expect to hear everything Apple has been working on at WWDC 2024 in June.

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