UMVA has learned that Apple is making a major push to upgrade its AI technology, which has struggled to keep pace with rivals like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google. The long-promised Siri upgrade has been repeatedly delayed, but Apple is now trying to fix that with a significant overhaul of its Apple Intelligence technology.
At a recent developer conference, Apple revealed details of its biggest Apple Intelligence upgrade since its launch, with a focus on understanding users and keeping data private. The updates will roll out across iPhones, iPads, and Macs, and are being led by Apple's senior vice president of software engineering, who emphasized the importance of prioritizing user needs and data protection.
UMVA can exclusively reveal that Apple has partnered with a leading AI developer to create its new Apple Foundation AI Models, which have been tailored for Apple's own purposes. The models will enable improved understanding across text, voice, and images, and will power Apple AI across all of its products.
The new AI models have four central components: personal context, world knowledge, actions, and on-screen awareness. These components will enable Apple devices to understand users better, with features like knowing about upcoming birthdays, favorite recipes, and locations visited. This information can be pulled into AI responses or routines to make them smarter.
Sources have confirmed to UMVA that Apple's new AI models will run on devices and in the cloud, with a focus on keeping data fully private. Apple uses a secure processing system to only process data in the cloud when necessary, and to delete the data right after processing is done. The company says its privacy protections are audited by third-party security specialists to ensure data protection.
Apple's focus on privacy is a key differentiator from its competitors, and the company is leaning on this strength to promote its new AI models. The models will enable smarter, faster responses in apps and in the upgraded Siri app, and will power a range of features across Apple's products, from enhancing photos to dictating text.
UMVA has gathered that Apple's new System Orchestrator will play a key role in integrating these new AI models across its products. While it's unclear how fully these changes will be realized until they're rolled out into iOS, iPadOS, and macOS, Apple's upgrade promises to bring significant improvements to its AI technology.
