Will Apple Embrace AI at the Next WWDC?

Envision a reality where Apple fully commits to AI. Let's say you're drafting a document in Pages, starting with a few bullet points. You highlight that text and summon your familiar virtual assistant, asking it to expand it into a full-length blog post. Or perhaps you request the virtual assistant to transform those points into a Keynote presentation. By selecting a few photos from your iCloud library, a multi-slide presentation is instantly ready in Keynote.

Suppose you're working in Numbers, wishing to create a pie chart but unsure of the process. You could simply instruct Apple's AI to convert the data into a pie chart. Once your Keynote presentation is set, you could pick some slides and ask the AI to generate animations for use in your Final Cut video project. The comprehensive ecosystem of Apple's first-party applications provides an excellent opportunity for Siri, the AI tool that's already integrated, to become extremely powerful for Apple users.

While watching Google's I/O keynote at their developers conference, I noted that AI was mentioned over a hundred times. Google's CEO Sundar Prachai stated that they are an AI-first company, a significant proclamation seven years into their journey. In contrast, Apple has yet to mention AI at any of its events. And honestly, I don't expect them to mention AI at the upcoming WWDC this summer. Instead, they might use terms like machine learning and mention Siri frequently.

While many rumors suggest that Apple may be launching a VR headset, Google's recent announcements at I/O regarding search and the magic editor for photos have shifted my focus. I find myself more excited about Apple utilizing AI and machine learning tools in their applications than a potential VR headset. Consider the Apple Mail app, a staple on all their devices. Wouldn't it be handy if you could ask Siri to draft an out-of-office responder, stating your vacation plans to Hawaii?

Imagine if you're a developer working in Xcode and could seek assistance from an AI virtual assistant. Siri, already ubiquitous across Apple devices, could be the ideal place to house AI tools. And Apple doesn't even have to label it as AI. They could name it 'Ask Siri' or perhaps 'Siri Supercharged'.

The introduction of Final Cut Pro to the iPad brings some AI-like features, such as Auto-crop, which can adjust a 16 by 9 video to focus on the subject. While other companies might label this as an AI feature, Apple refers to it as intelligent auto-cropping. Features like this, and background removal, could be incorporated into Siri for use across all their applications.

Let's consider using shortcuts. I've been using SGPT from Federico Vettici, which leverages the ChatGPT API for AI integration in my shortcuts. With this shortcut, I can extract all the links I've saved for a podcast recording, compile all the news headlines, and run them through ChatGPT to summarize all the headlines, generating an SEO-optimized podcast title and episode description. Imagine if Apple integrated this functionality, eliminating the need for ChatGPT, and instead, making Siri more powerful or integrating AI tools in shortcuts.

Apple could also introduce AI features in Apple Photos, iCloud Photo Library, Final Cut, and even Aperture. They already have several features in this area, such as frequent locations on your iPhone, which tracks your most visited places and suggests routes or commute times. If Apple takes this a few steps further, it could create a significant impact.

Both Google and Microsoft have shown considerable commitment to AI. Google, an AI-first company, plans to use AI to generate content at the top of Google searches. Microsoft is integrating ChatGPT and OpenAI in Bing. However, Apple's stance on AI remains unclear.

If Apple were to use some of this AI or generative technology in their apps, like Pages, Numbers, and Keynote, in Final Cut, or even iCloud Photos, then I feel like more people will actually understand the power of AI and how it could be useful in their workflows. We're just a couple of weeks away from WWDC. Apple's gonna make a bunch of announcements, iOS 17 and all that, but I'm really gonna be looking for their mentions of machine learning, and if anything smells like AI at WWDC, I'd be excited to see how Apple implements it.