When is iOS 18 coming out? Apple’s AI-driven iPhone update is the ‘biggest’ yet

In a little more than a year, it feels like we were bombarded with artificial intelligence chatbots. There’s ChatGPT and its verbose clones, the uncanny valley of Picassos led by Midjourney, and a creepy coterie of AI girlfriends. If you want to chinwag with a machine, choose your poison. Well, unless your apple is poison.

Surprisingly, when you check your iPhone or open your MacBook, there isn’t an AI genius available to help get things done. And don’t mention Siri, because most of us forget it even exists. So what’s the catch up? If Samsung and Google can make AI-driven phones, why can’t Apple?

The good news is that Apple is doing exactly that and the result may be closer than you think. Although it’s very secretive about its internal projects, reports and leaks abound detailing Apple’s plans.

All signs point to an AI-powered iPhone, which is widely tipped to arrive in the fall alongside iOS 18. But what will be available there? And will AI come to older iPhones? Here’s what you need to know.

Is Apple working on iPhone AI?

Apple boss Tim Cook has officially announced that his company will launch an AI product this year. The announcement, made in February, came on the heels of a Bloomberg report that claimed iOS 18 could be the “biggest” update in software history.

Behind the scenes, Apple’s goal is to make AI chatbots run on mobile devices instead of in remote data centers over the cloud. To achieve that, Apple would have to reduce the size of the AI ​​engine, known as a large language model, to fit on its custom smart chip. Its rivals have already pulled off the feat, with both Google and Samsung introducing lesser AI systems on their latest phones.

Those would be in line with Apple’s pro-privacy stance. It already completes things like facial recognition and voice recognition on the device itself, rather than sending data to the cloud. Additionally, if Apple can deliver a more secure AI, it could stand out from the current data-gobbling AI leader, ChatGPT.

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To that end, Apple is doing all the right things. The company has acquired 21 AI startups since the beginning of 2017; is on a hiring spree for AI talent; and has published numerous research papers on the technology, according to the Financial Times. In addition, its phone and laptop processors are growing more powerful with each new generation.

All told, Apple is laying the groundwork for its leap into next-generation AI. Here’s what the update will offer.

iOS 18 features

iOS 18 is where the rubber hits the road for the iPhone’s AI-driven transformation. Inside Apple, the new operating system is seen as the biggest update in iOS history, according to Mark Gurman – a trusted Bloomberg reporter with an impressive track record of Apple insights.

He previously revealed that Apple was planning a number of AI-focused features for iOS 18, including:

Upgrade Siri

A major overhaul of Siri is on the cards, likely powered by next-generation AI. This may lead to:

• Understanding complex requests: Siri could handle more complex and multi-part requests conversationally.

• Content summarization: Ability to summarize long articles or documents.

• Creative text generation: Siri could write emails and messages – or even generate different creative text formats.

Broader AI Integration

Besides Siri, AI will appear in many other places on the iPhone, including Apple’s apps and those made by outside developers:

• AI integration in the Messages app that can “complete questions and complete sentences automatically”.

• New AI features for Apple Music to “auto-generate playlists”.

• Generational AI integration in iWork apps, such as Keynote and Pages.

• Adding AI generation features to Apple’s app creation toolkit (Xcode) to allow developers to “write new apps faster”.

Potential AI tools

Apple is also working on a range of AI-powered features that could debut in iOS 18 as well:

• AI image generation: Apple is testing software that can animate images using text descriptions.

• Ask an AI chatbot: Some of Apple’s customer support team are reportedly using an AI chatbot that can help solve technical problems. The tool is yet more evidence that Apple has the capabilities to launch its own ChatGPT.

• Search engine: Could iOS 18 finally see the launch of Apple’s long-rumored search engine? If it works with Siri, even better.

• Voice cloning: Apple filed a patent for an AI that can imitate your voice while reading out loud text messages sent to others.

Will next generation AI come to older iPhones?

Now for the bad news: Apple is unlikely to bring the same AI features to every iPhone.

Why? Because the powerful technology may be too narrow for older devices with aging batteries, chips, and less memory and storage. The latest models also tend to have the best neural engines, which is the hardware component that allows them to complete AI tasks faster.

Therefore, Apple may introduce some scale-down generation features adapted to older iPhones, while saving the full experience for the new iPhone 16 range.

Which devices will support iOS 18?

It is also worth remembering that older iPhone models will not be able to fully support iOS 18. Here’s the full list of devices we think will get the update, and those that might not.

Likely to support iOS 18:

• iPhone 16 series (all models): These will ship with iOS 18.

• iPhone 15 series (all models): Apple is likely to continue its strong support for future generations.

• iPhone 14 series (all models): These devices should handle iOS 18’s potential progression with ease

• iPhone SE (3rd generation): Expect continued support due to its recent release.

• iPhone 13 series (all models): These are quite powerful but may lose support if iOS 18 introduces very hardware-intensive features, especially related to generational AI.

• iPhone 12 series (all models): Support will depend heavily on how robust iOS 18 features are.

It will probably NOT support iOS 18:

• iPhone SE (2nd generation): Features the A13 chip, and its age is unlikely to support it, along with possible AI generation claims.

• iPhone 11 series (All models): These have the same A13 chip as the iPhone SE 2.

• iPhone XR, iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max: These have the A12 chip and are approaching Apple’s standard five-year support window.

iOS 18 release date

So when can you get your hands on iOS 18 and its AI goodies? While there is no official release date for the update, we can make a strong prediction based on Apple’s historical patterns.

Like clockwork, Apple is expected to preview iOS 18 with developers for the first time at its annual WWDC event in June. This is when we will see its main features and get a clear idea of ​​the direction of the update.

Shortly after WWDC, Apple usually releases a public beta version of iOS 18, allowing adventurous users to give it a test drive and help identify bugs. The beta period usually lasts during the summer.

Everyone else will probably be able to download the update after it officially launches, along with the new iPhone 16 models, in September.