The Apple Worldwide Developers Conference will take up much of the tech news next week! This is the case every year, but the 2024 edition promises to be even richer than usual with new features related to generative artificial intelligence. They should take up half of the keynote, or a good hour! In his predictions for Monday’s event, Mark Gurman summarizes many of the rumors of the last few months, but adds some new features.
Generative AI capabilities would be grouped under the banner of “Apple Intelligence” (AI!), assures Bloomberg’s nosy boss. The good news is that the user will have the option not to use it: the feature will need to be activated in advance. Not everyone who has an aversion to AI will be forcibly recruited.
The bad news, though, is that you’ll need to own a recent device: an iPhone 15 Pro (or one of the future iPhones coming out this year), a Mac, or an iPad that comes with the M1 chip. This shouldn’t be a big deal for Macs, knowing that Intel-based models are quickly disappearing from circulation, but there are still some iPads with Ax chips – that’s the case with the iPad mini and iPad 10 still in the catalog.
As for the iPhone, it’s even more problematic, not all of them come with a 15 Pro, far from it! However, it remains to be seen how Apple plans to handle the AI functions processed by the device locally and on its own servers. An algorithm will determine the approach on a case-by-case basis. Maybe local functions could be taken over by Apple’s servers if the device isn’t powerful enough?
Apple is also expected to backtrack on its commitment to privacy, explaining that if user data has to go through servers — while the manufacturer has insisted on local processing — it will do so in a privacy-friendly manner. The manufacturer would therefore have staked everything on the security functions of the chips integrated into the servers.
