Apple’s ( AAPL ) Worldwide Developers Conference event kicks off Monday, June 10, with a keynote from CEO Tim Cook at the company’s headquarters in Cupertino, California. One of the most anticipated Apple events in years, WWDC 2024 is expected to be the starting point for the company’s big push into generative artificial intelligence.
Wall Street has been eager to learn what Apple has been up to over the past few months as rivals begin to roll out their own generative AI offerings, or in some cases pull back. Apple, earnings calls, etc. aside from a few brief mentions at the time, it was mostly on the fringes of the AI conversation.
During the company’s second-quarter call in May, Cook hinted at potential AI news from WWDC while highlighting Apple’s capabilities in both hardware and software.
“We believe in the transformative power and promise of AI, and we believe in our strengths that will differentiate us in this new era, including Apple’s unique combination of seamless integration of hardware, software and services; groundbreaking Apple silicon engine with our industry-leading neuron; and our unwavering focus on privacy,” he said.
If that’s not enough, Apple’s marketing chief Greg Joswiak wrote on X, formerly Twitter, at WWDC. “Absolutely Unbelievable!” and be sure to capitalize both words. Buy it? AI
In addition to unveiling its broader AI strategy, Apple will also debut the latest versions of various operating systems, including iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, macOS, tvOS, and the first major updates to the company’s visionOS operating system, which powers Vision Pro mixed reality. headset.
Still, everything else is virtually guaranteed to take a backseat to Apple’s AI news.
Siri is getting smarter and more
According to Bloomberg’s Apple forecaster Mark Gurman, the highlight of WWDC 2024 will be a new generative AI-powered version of Apple’s Siri smart assistant. This feature will allow Siri to control individual features within apps, making it more versatile than Siri on your current iPhone.
Siri has languished for years, proving more useful than acting as a true digital assistant for setting timers and playing songs on Spotify. But the generative AI version of Siri promises a truly intelligent assistant that can provide you with everything from proactive advice to enhanced answers to random questions that pop into your mind throughout the day.
Bloomberg’s Gurman also says that Apple’s artificial intelligence features, called Apple Intelligence, will touch a number of other apps, including Messages, Notes and Safari.
How Apple will power a smarter Siri is still an open question. According to the news Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journaland New York TimesApple is in talks with OpenAI to license its GPT software, and it’s also in separate talks with Google (GOOG, GOOGL) to license its Gemini software.
Contacting both companies can be difficult. OpenAI is already working closely with Microsoft ( MSFT ), which is trying to separate its PC business from Apple by boasting that some Windows 11 features will be powered by GPT-4o. Meanwhile, Google uses its Gemini AI model on Android smartphones, which compete directly with Apple’s iPhone. Google is also working with Samsung to provide artificial intelligence software for that company’s Galaxy phones.
It will also be interesting to see if consumers or Wall Street get more excited about Apple’s AI implementation. Investors and analysts have been expecting Apple to debut some sort of response to the generative AI explosion, but so far consumer use cases have been relatively limited.
If Apple introduces some well-designed features, it’s unlikely that consumers will drop everything and buy a new iPhone when the company debuts its newest phone. Conversely, most consumers will likely hold off on buying a new device until they see some kind of hardware update they’ve been waiting for, or until their current phone becomes unbearably slow.
As for iPadOS and macOS, expect Apple to roll out the same AI features it added to iOS in those operating systems. Overall, I expect Apple to be quite cautious with its AI moves. The company is careful about how consumers perceive its products, and it’s hard to imagine Apple announcing anything it’s not entirely sure about after rivals like Google and Microsoft stumble on their own with AI.
Apart from artificial intelligence, Apple is expected to introduce Rich Communication Services or RCS for the iPhone. This means that users will finally be able to send high-quality photos and videos to their Android friends. RCS is also more secure than the SMS standard that Apple currently uses to send texts from iPhone to Android.
Gurman also says that Apple will eventually allow people to arrange app icons on the iPhone home screen however they want, rather than being stuck with the traditional grid layout.
There will be more announcements from the big show, and Yahoo Finance will be there live, bringing you all the latest news.
Email Daniel Howley at dhowley@yahoofinance.com. Follow him on Twitter @DanielHowley.
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