Unveiling the truth: Is Apple Intelligence just a scam?
As Apple prepares to unveil the iPhone 17 on Tuesday, IOL digital journalist Michael Sherman has urged for a significant overhaul of Apple Intelligence, which currently offers limited AI functionalities like custom emojis and a restricted free ChatGPT plugin, despite increased RAM in devices. Image generated by Apple Intelligence.
Image: Apple Intelligence
As Apple prepares to host its ‘Awe Dropping’ event on Tuesday evening SA time when the new fleet of iPhone 17 phones are announced, I really hope they do something about Apple Intelligence.
As it stands, Apple Intelligence is useless. It might as well not be included as it stands. The only close to original thing Apple Intelligence can do right now is create custom emojis, and unless you’re a teenager that’s really not useful in any way.
Image Playground, which produces Apple Intelligence pictures not too dissimilar to emojis, is also barely worth it.
Any yet, when the iPhone 16s were launched last year, the slogan Apple used, and still uses, is “Made for Apple Intelligence”.
Apple’s AI advancements: From iPhones to Mac laptops with limited free ChatGPT plugin usage
The slogan is partially true, as Apple made sure to up the base memory in their phones from 6GB to 8GB. This is to ensure that the devices could actually run AI tasks, but even in 2024 that’s a huge amount of RAM by any other operating system standards like Android.
The iPhones, however, could be excused for having access to only basic AI functions since they are a handheld device, but it’s much the same story for their laptops.
Any Apple silicone Mac laptop since late 2020 (M1 and newer) can ‘run’ Apple Intelligence. Obviously, the Mac can run any Apple Intelligence task the phones can, but here’s the kicker - it's not Apple's own AI running the tasks as any useful productivity app uses a ChatGPT plugin, and it’s not even the paid version so it runs out after a limited number of requests.
That means if you use ‘Apple Intelligence’ to say proofread text in the word processing app that is native to Mac (Pages), you can only use the feature so many times per day.
Limitations of Apple Intelligence in 2025
For example, I use Apple Intelligence to proofread my stories all day long on my 2021 M1 Macbook Pro and routinely by the end of my eight-hour shift I have run out of access to these features as an error message pops up telling me just that.
That means if I want to continue using AI features to check my text, I have to open ChatGPT and do it there, as doing it natively in the Pages app simply won’t work.
In 2025, is that really the best Apple can do? I just hope on Tuesday that along with their new products, they also do something about Apple Intelligence and that anything less than a complete overhaul will be unacceptable.
* The views expressed are not necessarily the views of IOL or Independent Media.
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