I am deeply invested in the Apple ecosystem. I own just about everything from a MacBook right down to an Apple Watch, I’ve got it all. Like many people who are invested in this ecosystem, this has been ongoing for many years now and every time I’ve needed a new device – I’ve not even considered the possibility of picking up another brand.
However, as technology advances, being invested isn’t enough to keep me on board with Apple products anymore. I need more out of my devices.
Apple Intelligence – AI for the rest of us, claims Apple.
Realistically, Apple’s attempt at incorporating artificial intelligence into its products… sucks. Some of the major features include a smarter Siri, writing tools and Image Playground.
It’s clear that Siri has needed some improvements for a long time now, especially with the implementation of tools like Gemini Voice coming to Google Pixel and Galaxy AI on Samsung’s latest phone. These artificial intelligence companions are significantly smarter than Apple’s original Siri, with the ability to think deeper and provide you with more in-depth answers to more complex questions.
In order to use Gemini Voice, Galaxy AI or even Copilot’s voice chat option which can be used on mobile through the Copilot app, you don’t need to stick to structured sentences the way you needed to do with the original Siri.
Apple knew it was time for an upgrade. This smarter AI Siri allows you to get more relevant and personal responses from Siri and works with ChatGPT. Siri can now tap into ChatGPT to provide you with more in-depth answers to questions and you can connect your ChatGPT account – whether paid or free – to take advantage of more features.
Despite this smarter Siri meaning to be just that – smarter, I find that both of them perform very similarly aside from specific use cases. New Siri doesn’t rely on ChatGPT all the time – only for specific complex reasoning questions it determines are worth tapping into the more advanced AI. This means it takes time to process your question itself, determine if its worthy of additional AI help and then send through the prompt to ChatGPT if required.
All of these processes add extra time to a request when compared to asking other AI companions directly. This means the performance isn’t the same as some of the competition where you constantly have access to a more advanced AI tool like Gemini or Galaxy AI.
Outside of Siri, there are multiple other features to make use of thanks to Apple Intelligence like Image Playground. This allows you to create original images from text descriptions, concepts or photos from your library but the main usage is the Genmoji feature which creates new custom emojis for you to use.
Being honest, without further integration, this feature is not great and requires you to open a separate app anyway. By that point, I may as well just open ChatGPT, Gemini or one of the many other separate AI apps you can install on your phone.
You can also take advantage of the writing tools feature which can proof read your text and rewrite until the tone and wording are exactly how you’d like. It can also summarize text whether it be emails or sections of a book.
This is something I can say I actually find useful which is mainly down to how well its integrated into your Apple device. You can select any text and then the summarize option appears alongside the Copy and Paste options.
More of this seamless integration please Apple! Why would I open an app or use Siri so it can act as a middle man between me and other AI services, when I can just go straight to the ChatGPT app?
Gemini by Google is built straight into your Google Pixel device and uses on-board processing with Gemini Nano rather than having to outsource AI capabilities to other providers.
As other phone manufactures begin to implement AI more deeply into their products, making them integrated and easily accessible it feels like Apple is being left further and further behind.
Why should I keep investing in Apple products when some of the best AI tools aren’t integrated into the devices the way that they are on other phones?
While Apple have taken the easy way out by partnering with ChatGPT in order to deliver some of the best AI capabilities rather than developing its own AI companion, the least it could do is integrate this more seamlessly so it can be accessed easier.
Despite being deep invested in the Apple Ecosystem, I feel like swapping over to a Google Pixel more and more so every day for a variety of reasons, and AI really is the shiny cherry on top. Apple needs to work on its AI features before it’s too far in the rearview mirror to even see.
