Apple explains why Apple Intelligence is exclusive to the iPhone 15 Pro

Apple’s AI, called “Apple Intelligence,” is a bit of a mystery, at least until you actually try it out (probably). next year). still, What you can experience A better Siri and “semantic” AI iPhone 15 Pro Or the iPhone 15 Pro Max. Apple has finally explained (slightly) more detail about why that model isn’t coming. Future AI features It also applies to older iPhones, promising that this isn’t just a massive scheme to force users to upgrade.

Still, I’m wondering why cloud-based AI like ChatGPT can’t be applied retroactively, when Samsung has already proven it’s possible. MacRumors) asked the question we’re all thinking: “Is the iPhone 15 Pro’s AI monopoly just about making money?” Apple’s AI head John Giannandrea and marketing chief Greg Joswiak responded that of course it’s not.

Recent M-series chips in MacBooks and iPads have access to Apple Intelligence, and the A17 Bionic chip in the iPhone 15 Pro has 16 cores. Non-profit It can achieve 35 TOPS (trillion operations per second), which is twice the neural capability of the regular A16 Bionic. iPhone 15 and iPhone 14 Pro.

Giannandrea said that large language models are “incredibly computationally expensive” because of “inference,” or the time it takes for the AI ​​to run. According to Apple’s lead developer, the RAM component also determines how well the AI ​​runs on a device.

“In theory it’s possible to run these models on very old devices, but they would be too slow to be useful,” he said.

When Gruber asked if this was a plan to sell new iPhones, Joswiak denied it, saying, “Otherwise they would be better off selling the latest iPads and Macs as well.”

The MacBook will have different AI capabilities than the iPhone, but the neural capabilities of Apple’s ARM-based chips started out relatively small compared to today. The 2020 M1 chip had a neural processor with 11 TOPS, but some of the new AI capabilities will be included. The M2 had 15.8. The latest M4 chip in the MacBook is iPad Pro It has 38 TOPS of processing power. How well each of these devices will be able to run AI is another matter, but Apple has repeatedly said that it should work just fine.

The A16 Bionic chip’s NPU boasts speeds of 17 TOPS, but the iPhone 14 Pro only has 6GB of base RAM compared to 8GB on the 15 Pro. There are bound to be hardware architecture differences between the two Pro-level phones, but judging by Apple’s comments, it seems like 2GB of RAM is enough to restrict the AI ​​to the latest and greatest iPhones.

Additionally, there’s some ambiguity about what “Apple Intelligence” is and isn’t. Craig Federighi, Apple’s vice president of software engineering and a parkour expert, said some of the hyped features include: Mathematics Notes Smart Scripts on iPad isn’t built on Apple’s AI models, so it will come on older devices.

Earlier this year, Samsung began incorporating AI features that were previously exclusive to the S24 into its smartphones. Galaxy S23 Mid-range line S23 FEFeatures such as circle search and live translation are Galaxy Fold 5 and Flip 5Note that these are not all new Galaxy AI features on the S24But it does suggest that some of these features, which reportedly require a lot of neural processing power, may be able to work on older devices as well, especially since many of these AI models run in the cloud. Samsung even says that may be the case one day. Forcing users to pay This is to keep data centers powered while they process power-hungry AI.

We know that Apple’s big AI plans will be a holistic package that will impact everything you can do on your devices. Siri is supposed to be one of the pieces that ties it all together. Apple wants the AI ​​to have access to your emails and texts, and even control your apps. For example, if you ask your mom what you have planned for later this month, the AI ​​should be able to parse that information through texts and emails.

Apple promises that most of this AI will work on-device, and that the parts that aren’t sent to the cloud will be processed in Apple’s own data centers powered by M-series processors. Secure and Private Cloud Computing Infrastructure To keep user data safe. But World Development Congress 2024However, it is not yet known which parts of the AI ​​services will be processed by the latest Bionic chip and which parts will require cloud computation.

Or is it? Currently, many AI drawing functions are ChatGPT by OpenAIThis will essentially work with Apple Intelligence in iOS 18 on the way to Apple Intelligence, which is the only AI feature we know is coming sooner or later and will necessarily have to run on the cloud. Apple previously confirmed to Gizmodo that ChatGPT and all of Apple Intelligence will remain on the iPhone 15 Pro.