Despite unforced errors, the future of Apple Intelligence could be bright

It could take a year or two for this all to come together

Using iOS 18.1, it’s clear that Apple’s large language models are not as effective or reliable as Claude or ChatGPT. It takes time to train models like these, and it looks like Apple started late.

Based on my hours spent with both Apple Intelligence and more established tools from cutting-edge AI companies, I feel the other models crossed a usefulness and reliability threshold a year or so ago. When ChatGPT first launched, it was more of a curiosity than a powerful tool. Now it’s a powerful tool, but that’s a relatively recent development.

In my time with Writing Tools and Notification Summaries in particular, Apple’s models subjectively appear to be around where ChatGPT or Claude were 18 months ago. Notification Summaries almost always miss crucial context in my experience. Writing Tools introduce errors where none existed before.

It’s not hard to spot the huge error that Writing Tools introduced here. This happens all the time when I use it.

Credit:
Samuel Axon

More mature models do these things, too, but at a much lower frequency. Unfortunately, Apple Intelligence isn’t far enough along to be broadly useful.

That said, I’m excited to see where Apple Intelligence will be in 24 months. I think the company is on the right track by using AI to target specific user needs rather than just putting a chatbot out there and letting people figure it out. It’s a much better approach than what we see with Microsoft’s Copilot. If Apple’s models cross that previously mentioned threshold of utility—and it’s only a matter of time before they do—the future of AI tools on Apple platforms could be great.

It’s just a shame that Apple didn’t seem to have the confidence to ignore the zeitgeisty commentators and roll out these features when they’re complete and ready, with messaging focusing on user problems instead of “hey, we’re taking AI seriously too.”

Most users don’t care if you’re taking AI seriously, but they do care if the tools you introduce can make their day-to-day lives better. I think they can—it will just take some patience. Users can be patient, but can Apple? It seems not.

Even so, there’s a real possibility that these early pains will be forgotten before long.