Apple’s AI features in iOS 18 might only work on your device – here’s what that means

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Apple’siOS 18iPhone upgrade is just around the corner, and it’s expected to be one of the largest updates in the operating system’s history. And with just a couple of months until it launches in June, we’ve just learned an interesting tidbit about how its much-anticipated artificial intelligence (AI) features might work.

In the paid-for section of hisPower On newsletter(viaMacRumors), Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman says the AI features – or at least, those developed by Apple rather than by a third party – will work wholly on your device.

“As the world awaits Apple’s big AI unveiling on June 10, it looks like the initial wave of features will work entirely on device,” Gurman writes. “That means there’s no cloud processing component to the company’s large language model, the software that powers the new capabilities.”

Gurman added that Apple will probably augment this with cloud-based AI features offered by tools likeGoogleGemini or a different provider. Apple has been rumored to bein discussions with major AI developersto get generative artificial intelligence tools built into iOS 18, which could mean we seeChatGPTor some other AI woven deep into the operating system.

At the moment, iOS 18 is not tipped to includeApple’s own long-rumored chatbot. The release date for Apple’schatbotis currently unknown, butbased on what we’ve seen so far, it could be a major challenger to the current industry leaders.

What does this mean for you?

Apple has long been a champion of users' privacy, and prefers to run as many of its features on-device as it can. When that happens, it means your data does not leave your device and is not hosted on any third-party servers, which limits outside access to it.

However, while Apple is apparently keeping its own AI tools on-device, the same can’t be said for whichever company ends up providing the generative AI that lands in iOS 18. That seems inconsistent with Apple’s much-vaunted privacy stance, and perhaps indicates that the company feels it needs tocatch up with its rivalsin any way it can.

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And when it comes to AI, staying entirely on-device might limit the technology’s capabilities. Generative AI requires a huge amount of computing power, and while Apple’s smartphone chips are far ahead of their competitors, even they might struggle with complex AI workloads. This is all speculation for now, of course, but it might be an issue.

We’ll get more information on iOS 18 and all of its AI features on June 10, when Apple is set to host itsWorldwide Developers Conference (WWDC)– so you’re interested in artificial intelligence, it’s definitely a date to mark in your calendar.

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Alex Blake has been fooling around with computers since the early 1990s, and since that time he’s learned a thing or two about tech. No more than two things, though. That’s all his brain can hold. As well as TechRadar, Alex writes for iMore, Digital Trends and Creative Bloq, among others. He was previously commissioning editor at MacFormat magazine. That means he mostly covers the world of Apple and its latest products, but also Windows, computer peripherals, mobile apps, and much more beyond. When not writing, you can find him hiking the English countryside and gaming on his PC.

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