Apple Intelligence could be bad news for AI gadgets

The rumors were true: Apple is calling its on-device AI Apple Intelligence, which is either genius or ridiculous, depending on how you look at it. Last night’s WWDC was a big night for Apple, as the company unveiled the latest generations of each of its operating systems. But Apple Intelligence is what everyone’s talking about.

“Setting a new standard for privacy in AI, Apple Intelligence understands your context and gives you relevant information that helps you,” Apple states in the introduction. Indeed, the (mostly) on-device aspects of Apple AI make it seem like the company is making great strides in AI privacy. Apple AI has also been compared to some other, less fortunate, AI devices.

Yes, the past few months have been strange times for “AI gadgets.” The likes of the Humane Pin and Rabbit R1 got off to a bad start. Companies like Humane and Rabbit have been busy creating dedicated hardware to facilitate the software side of AI, with little success. And now Apple has seemingly turned the iPhone itself into an AI agent.

But what sets Apple Intelligence apart is that it not only has its own large language model, but also operates on an index of all your personal files, photos, contacts, and messages to provide contextual responses. As one X user put it, “With iOS 18, over a billion users now have an AI agent in their pocket.”