More details on iOS 18 AI features revealed

Apple plans to introduce new AI features including smart message replies and generative photo retouching tools in iOS 18, a new report claims.

New article from AppleInsider today revealed more details about several widely anticipated AI features in iOS 18. Siri is said to receive several major improvements, including:

• Improved responses: Significantly updated answer generation capabilities with a new Smart Answers framework that considers entities such as people, companies, calendar events, places, dates, and more.
• Improved voices: More “natural” voices with better text-to-speech functionality.
• Control media across devices: Use ‌Siri‌ on one device to control playback on another, such as through Apple Watch for Apple TV. This feature is not expected to arrive until later in 2024.
• Catch up: Users can request an overview of their recent notifications via ‌Siri‌.

A number of other AI-powered features are also in the pipeline for specific apps in ‌iOS 18‌:

• Smart answers: Allows users to reply to messages and emails using automatically generated text responses.
• Transcription and summarization: New AI tools for Notes allow users to edit audio in the app, transcribe audio, and summarize text.
• Math Notes: Support for correct math notation in Notes with Calculator integration. Math Notes will allow the Notes app to recognize math equations and come up with solutions and generate graphs.
• Math predictions on the keyboard: Input improvements for math to allow complex math expressions to be completed when they are recognized as part of text input, similar to predictive text or embedded text completion.
• Clean up: Remove objects from photos using generative artificial intelligence. This tool will replace Apple’s current “Retouch” feature.
• Generative playground: An app that uses generative artificial intelligence to create and edit images using the iMessage extension. It’s currently only designed for Apple’s internal testing environment, but it suggests there are plans to allow users to create images and then share them via iMessage. This could be related to plans to allow users to create their own emojis.

visionOS 2 will also apparently get an improved predictive text model thanks to integration with Apple Transformer LM, as well as a revamped Voice Commands user interface. Updates to the Calendar and Freeform applications are also said to be planned, as well as system settings for macOS. A selection of Apple’s new AI features are expected to be unveiled during the company’s WWDC keynote on June 10.