Apple might be a little late to the party, but we are hoping to see the tech giant throw its own twist and offer something that stands out from the strong competition on the Android side. Here you will find everything we know about the iPhone 16 AI features so far.
Some of the information below is based on leaks and rumors, so keep in mind that not all that is mentioned here is guaranteed to come with this year’s iPhones. If you prefer waiting until everything is official, you can come back after Apple’s WWDC, which starts on June 10, when we will have the company will announce all iOS 18 AI features during the event.
All rumored iPhone 16 AI features
Siri Catches Up
We all know that Siri is far from being on the same level of smarts compared to Google Assistant (or Amazon Alexa). The iPhone 16 is said to change that with a massively upgraded Siri, which will offer similar functionality to that of ChatGPT.
More specifically, Siri should become capable of more complex tasks, such as summarizing text, giving more comprehensive answers to queries, proofreading, and more.
Apple insider Mark Gurman, who writes for Bloomberg, has also mentioned in one of his weekly newsletters that Siri and the Messages app might “field questions and auto-complete sentences…” This could also mean that, similarly to Google’s Assistant, Siri will be capable of altering a text to change its tone, and even add suggestions on how to structure it.
AI-Enhanced Image and Video Editing
One of the main use cases for multimodal large language models (aka MLLMs), is to improve the image quality of photos and Videos. Google did this with its Magic Editor and Video Boost features, which automatically transform the content to make it look as good as possible.
Given Apple’s intense focus on the iPhone’s camera performance, it is not too far-fetched to think that the iPhone 16 will include similar features to boost the performance of its camera system.
In fact, Apple has already partnered with UC Santa Barbara researchers to develop an AI model that can edit images based on user instructions, the result of which we might well see in this year’s lineup.
Content-aware Suggestions and Image Recognition
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has also stated that Apple might integrate AI in some of its own iOS applications. The specific examples Gurman mentions are automatically generated Apple Music playlists and the same for slides using the Keynote app.
Apple is apparently also working on a way to offer this functionality to third-party app developers.
On-device and Cloud-Based AI
According to one of the more recent Power On newsletters from Gurman, Apple plans to have most of the iPhone 16’s AI features be carried out by on-device AI. The main reason behind this choice is security, which Apple is known for prioritizing with its devices.Having most AI functionality happening on-device also means that features will work quickly. Cloud-based AI features usually have some delay as the information goes to the Cloud, gets processed, and is sent back to your phone again.
The major downside, however, is that on-device AI cannot handle extremely complex AI algorithms, something the more powerful Cloud computers are perfectly capable of. So, as leaks and reports have suggested, Apple might lean on Google’s Gemini or another AI outfit for cloud-based AI features coming with the iPhone 16 series.
Conclusion
Unlike the information we had before Google’s Pixel 8 series last year or Samsung’s Galaxy S24 series that was released at the beginning of 2024, the AI capabilities of Apple’s iPhone 16 lineup are rather vague.
Of course, there are a few safe expectations such as camera-related features, improvements to Siri, and some quality-of-life iOS upgrades being powered by Apple’s upcoming generative AI. Thankfully, we don’t have that much more to wait until WWDC, so we will get the juicy details soon enough.
