Apple's big push for generative AI in its multiple OSes has begun, and Apple has finally opened up Apple Intelligence for some public testing -- but only in developer beta form at the moment. Some of Apple's promised AI-powered writing tools, Siri enhancements and photo library-connected requests are here in Apple's latest developer beta of iOS 18.1 and MacOS Sequoia 15.1 arriving today, but it's not being released to the available public beta yet. That being said, expect a lot of people to start playing around with it very soon, including CNET.
Apple Intelligence is expected to arrive this fall for a subset of iPhones, iPads and Macs with the necessary chipsets as a part of iOS 18, and even then it will debut as a beta feature to opt into. But Apple Intelligence is currently a beta within a beta: it's part of the developer beta of iOS 18.1 (and MacOS Sequoia 15.1), while the public beta available on iPhones, Macs and iPads right now is still based on iOS 18.0 and MacOS Sequoia 15.0.
Apple is not introducing all its promised AI-driven upgrades at once. The developer beta version of Apple Intelligence will have AI-suggested writing tools that pop up in documents or emails, and a number of Siri changes including a new voice designed to sound more natural, more contextual conversations, a new glowing border around the display when Siri is running and a double-tap gesture on the bottom of the screen to type to Siri. There's also instant movie memory requesting in Photos and AI summaries in Messages, Mail, Notifications and Notes. But ChatGPT hook-ins, Apple's GenMoji and Image Playground features and other Siri features aren't onboard yet.
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The developer beta has a settings feature that allows a choice to opt into the Apple Intelliegence features for testing, a process that Apple says could take hours to get approved for. It's still unknown whether Apple's public release of the Apple Intelligence beta arriving later this year will have a similar opt-in process.
While some of Apple's AI features sound genuinely useful, the limited rollout to only certain iPhones, iPads and Macs later this year (iPhone 15 Pro models or later, and Macs and iPads with M-series chips) means it won't be used by everyone. We will, hopefully, begin to understand what those features will actually be capable of doing.