Apple’s iOS 18 is expected to be unveiled in two parts, including basic aritificial intelligence (AI) features that will be processed on-device, and other advanced features that will require communication with Apple’s servers.
As part of its AI overhaul, Apple engineers have had to rearchitect Siri’s underlying software using large language models (LLMs), the algorithm that underpins generative AI.
According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the new features of Siri will include tasks such as organising notes, summarising articles and more. Â
The phone-making giant plans to use AI to analyse user activity on devices to automatically enable these‌ features.
Its own LLM will handle basic AI tasks on-device, powered by the iPhone’s processor, rather than in the cloud.
It’s unclear what the basic tasks will entail, but the LLM will determine if a request can be processed on the device or through Apple’s servers.
According to Gurman, the on-device AI capabilities will require an iPhone 15 Pro or later version to work.
According to MacRumors, taking both reports into account, users should expect the following iPhone models to run iOS 18 without some of Apple’s on-device AI features:
- iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus
- iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max
- iPhone 13, iPhone 13 mini, iPhone 13 Pro, and iPhone 13 Pro Max
- iPhone 12, iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 12 Pro, and iPhone 12 Pro Max
- iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max
- iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max
- iPhone XR
- iPhone SE (second and third generation)