iOS 18: The latest on Apple’s plans

When WWDC kicks off on June 10, there will be a lot of attention on Apple’s plans for new artificial intelligence features. In the latest edition of his Power On newsletter, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reiterates that one of Apple’s primary focuses will be on privacy and on-device intelligence.

Gurman says that the “initial wave” of Apple’s AI features will work entirely on device, with “no cloud processing component.”

But while there are benefits to the on-device strategy, there are also drawbacks. For instance, on-device AI features wouldn’t be able to access higher-power cloud infrastructure that can “run more sophisticated AI algorithms.

This is something I’m really interested in watching play out. We’re expecting Apple to announce many of its own AI features, while simultaneously team up with a company like Google for cloud-based artificial intelligence features.

There’s also the question of device compatibility for AI features powered on-device. While cloud-based AI features can run on older devices with slower hardware, on-device features could be limited to only the newest iPhones with newest A-series chips.