iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 will include a "slew of new AI features," according to a report this week from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
The report claims that Apple is training both Siri and the iPhone's built-in Spotlight search tool on large language models, with a goal of improving each feature's ability to answer more complex questions accurately. The revamped version of Spotlight could also offer deeper integration with "specific" functions and features in apps.
Apple has also explored AI-powered features that would allow users to automatically generate playlists in Apple Music and presentation slides in the Keynote app, the report said. Other apps that are rumored to gain deeper AI integration in iOS 18 include Health, Messages, Numbers, Pages, and Shortcuts, and there will likely be more.
On an earnings call this month, Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company was working on generative AI and would share details "later this year." Apple is expected to announce iOS 18 at its annual developers conference WWDC in June, and the update should be released in September. Some new AI features announced later could be exclusive to iPhone 16 models, which are rumored to get a "significantly" upgraded Neural Engine.
Beyond iOS 18 and iPadOS 18, Gurman said Apple is planning to add some new AI features to macOS 15, and to its app development tool Xcode.
