By: Nick Gambino
Your iPhone is now ready to update to iOS 18.3 and with it comes even more AI. The newest operating system has Apple Intelligence on by default which means you no longer have to opt in.
This is a big step forward in Apple’s AI integration. While their resident AI that they’re calling Apple Intelligence was announced and even released months ago, it’s been rolled out bit by bit. It’s still considered in beta even with iOS 18.3.
If you update your iPhone today you’ll find AI features that allow you to generate images, write text and get summaries of large chunks of text message and emails. That is, if you have any 2024 iPhone model or a Pro model from 2023.
In addition to these features being on by default, users will now get clearly labeled notification of AI summaries. These summaries of large blocks of texts will now appear in italics under a “Summarized by Apple Intelligence” heading. That way, you know when AI is feeding you info and you don’t have to worry that it’s working in the shadows.
If you’ve been using Apple Intelligence and have relied on the AI assistant to summarize news for you, that’s being temporarily suspended. Supposedly this is being retooled after the AI summarizer was spitting out incorrect summaries and completely fabricating information.
This is something ChatGPT and other AI chatbots are “guilty” of. They are liars. So are humans, but you wouldn’t expect a computer model that works in a binary system to just make something up out of whole cloth. It’s a bit scary and needs to be ironed out before we rely on AI summaries for our important news.
Now, there are some users who aren’t going to want AI interfering with their phone. This is understandable whether it’s for moral reasons or because of trust issues. Like I said, Apple Intelligence is still in beta and is not without its glitches.
Ok, so what do you do if you don’t want to use Apple Intelligence on your iPhone? You have to turn it off manually. To do that, simply go to settings and tap on “Apple Intelligence & Siri.” Then just switch off “Apple Intelligence.”
AI is going to be a part of the iPhone going forward, but I’m glad they are taking their time with it to make sure it’s not destroying what we’ve come to love about iPhones.
