Apple will kick off its weeklong Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC 2024) event with the customary keynote at 10 a.m. ET/7 a.m. PT on June 10.
There’s a stream on YouTube as well, but that has a tendency to lag a bit.
The latest reports have put a name to Apple’s AI efforts: Apple Intelligence, along with the caveat that not all recent Apple devices will be able to use the new system.
And you can bet that many of iOS 18’s AI features will make their way to macOS 15, as well.
TechCrunch will be reporting on the ground at Apple Park, bringing you the news as it happens.
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Apple is set to board the runaway locomotive that is generative AI at next week’s World Wide Developer Conference.
First there’s the name: Apple Intelligence.
Apple Intelligence will arrive as an opt-in beta, similar to developer-focused operating system updates the company releases after WWDC.
Apple Intelligence will initially be focused on bolstering existing applications.
it sounds like Apple’s big push into AI is less about flash and more about making its operating system more intuitive and user friendly.
The subject has been a massive question mark looming over Cupertino for the last few years, as competitors like Google and Microsoft have embraced generative AI.
Apple’s near-term strategy is a deep integration between existing properties and generative AI, with Siri at the center.
Rather than replacing Assistant outright, Google has been integrating its generative AI platform into different applications.
Smart speakers have a broader bellwether for platforms like Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant.
Other people do it well.”The company’s approach to generative AI is currently in the same place.
WWDC is for developers, and much of the focus will be on iOS 18.
As the big event nears, all sorts of leaks have emerged about what iOS 18 and its rumored AI-powered apps and features have in store.
AI recaps of missed texts will also be available.
Users will also be able to change the color of app icons, perhaps as Apple’s answer to Google’s Material You.
Maps with route creationMaps will support custom route creation in iOS 18, which lets users design their own routes for a trip.
Following the collapse of its electric car project, Apple reportedly shuffled a number of employees into its internal generative AI efforts.
iOS 18 with more AIImage Credits: Darrell EtheringtonAlong with that partnership, expect iOS 18 to be the centerpiece of the event.
Siri will be getting a long-awaited refresh, courtesy of Apple’s generative AI work.
Generative AI is even coming to emojis, allowing users to customize and create their own in Messages.
A lot of the iOS updates should also make their way to macOS, including those in Siri, Notes and Safari.
Today, Meta announced AI-powered features for WhatsApp Business apps, such as helping with the creation of click-to-WhatsApp ads and generating responses to frequent customer messages.
WhatsApp Business users will be able to leverage AI to create Facebook and Instagram ads that can start a WhatsApp chat with a business.
The company said it is testing AI-powered customer support, which will automatically answer customer queries related to catalog or frequently asked questions.
Meta noted that it plans to denote AI-generated messages clearly so customers know that they are not talking to a representative of a company.
While Meta is offering these tools without a cost, its primary driver for revenue on the WhatsApp Business platform is businesses having more conversations with customers.
Google on Thursday is issuing new guidance for developers building AI apps distributed through Google Play, in hopes of cutting down on inappropriate and otherwise prohibited content.
Schools across the U.S. are reporting problems with students passing around AI deepfake nudes of other students (and sometimes teachers) for bullying and harassment, alongside other sorts of inappropriate AI content.
Google says that its policies will help to keep out apps from Google Play that feature AI-generated content that can be inappropriate or harmful to users.
It points to its existing AI-Generated Content Policy as a place to check its requirements for app approval on Google Play.
The company is also publishing other resources and best practices, like its People + AI Guidebook, which aims to support developers building AI apps.
But look beyond the hype and high-profile deals like the one between OpenAI and PwC last week, and you’ll see that the world is already years into using customer-facing, no-code AI tools for extracting information and working faster.
The deal underscores not just the opportunity around increasing demand for AI in the B2B market, but also a wider trend in enterprise IT.
Eigen and Sirion are not disclosing the financial terms of the deal, but below is relevant context that tells some of the story.
London-based Eigen is led and co-founded by Dr Lewis Liu, an Oxford PhD who studied both art and physics.
It says that it works with over 250 large enterprises manages more than 7 million contracts worth $800 billion.
Only a few years ago, one of the hottest topics in enterprise software was ‘robotic process automation’ (RPA).
The rise of generative AI, however, may just be the missing key to building these kinds of systems.
“Last year, generative AI happened and I realized that it unlocks some software scenarios that were impossible before,” Surpatanu said.
You have to combine it with more traditional software if you want to squeeze the best out of it,” he said.
Generative AI, Surpatanu argues, can bring a degree of adaptability to context and an understanding of the user’s intent to these systems that wasn’t really possible before and something that RPA often struggles with.
