The iPhone 16 Comes With AI Drama
Apple's next iphone reveal is on Monday and this is going to be a controversial Apple event. Of course, there's always a little drama when we get a new iphone. But this time Apple's generative A I software push is making things extra spicy and unpredictable. Not everyone who buys an iphone 16 is going to get the same features. It depends on where you live. Some people are upgrading for A I but a lot of folks are not enthusiastic and don't want generative A I turned on and then there's Mother Earth who might not be too pleased with the environmental impact of Apple Intelligence with the big event almost here. Let's go over the coming storm that's tied to Apple A I and what drama to watch for at this iphone 16 launch event. I'm Bridget Carey and this is one more thing, Apple Intelligence is the big feature coming to iphone software this year and it's expected to be a major selling point in how Apple convinces folks to get a new iphone because only the newest iphones are said to be able to run the A I and that includes last year's top of the line iphone 15 pro and Pro Max models, but not everyone who buys a new iphone is getting the new A I Apple says 27 countries in the European Union will not be getting its A I features. This year, Apple says it's quote due to the regulatory uncertainties brought about by the Digital Markets Act. And this includes two other features iphone, Mirring to Max and a share screen sharing feature. They're also not going to be on iphones in the EU. This year, the Digital Markets Act is anti trust regulation to promote fair competition in the EU. It requires services to work across platforms so Apple can't favor its software over a rival company. You can thank the Digital Markets Act for putting pressure on Apple to change all of the charging ports to USB C ports. The Digital Markets Act is what put fortnight back on iphones in the EU back in August of 2020 Apple removed the game fortnight from the app store for violations of its payment feature. But the D MA law let users in the EU install third party app stores where fortnight could be downloaded on iphones again. And this Digital Markets Act is why in Europe, I was 18 will have a default app section where users can delete pre installed apps. So for example, they can take off Apple's mail app and download something else to be the default or they can even change the defaults for the keyboard or the default app for making phone calls. But that flexibility is not in Apple's A I. Back in June. Apple sent a statement to cnet saying quote interoperability requirements of the D MA could force us to compromise the integrity of our products in ways that risk user privacy and data security. Apple says it will work with the Eu on a solution to releasing Apple intelligence in these European Union countries. But Apple also has A I drama in China. Apple's A I taps into chat GP T and chat GP T is banned in China. So Apple has to find another chatbot partner just for those customers. Now we have some serious fragmentation of experiences. Apple has to present this phone as a worthwhile upgrade but not every customer can experience the phone in the same way, Apple's presentations often put a big emphasis on sustainability and the environment. Last year, Apple even had this whole skit with actress Octavia Spencer as Mother Earth pressuring Apple to be a more eco friendly company. Everyone says they're planting trees. Apple released its first carbon neutral product in the Apple Watch series nine. It ended the use of leather and its product line up and it's cutting out plastic in its packaging. Apple is on a goal to make every product carbon neutral by 2030. That's great. Fantastic. And now one year later, how does Apple talk about the environment when it's making a big push into A I, something known for taking a toll on the scientific American reported that training and running A I systems does require a great deal of computing power and electricity. That means more carbon dioxide emissions and it means A I contributes to the climate crisis. Now, it's not a simple thing to calculate, but overall, it's not a good look. And we're starting to see some reporting on the topic including a peer reviewed analysis published in October about the energy footprint of Artificial intelligence, Scientific American writes that NVIDIA is set to ship 1.5 million A I server units by the year 2027. So according to this research, if the servers all ran at full capacity, it would be more electricity than what many small countries use in a year. Now, that's NVIDIA as the example. I'm not sure how many trees Apple would need to plant to compensate for its servers, but expect environmental critics to look at how much or a little Apple talks about its push to be more sustainable when it runs servers that power the cloud A I for millions of customers that use the most popular phone in the world or you know what? Maybe folks will be just so distracted by a new fine woven case. You never know Apple's path into A I is risky, especially when it could affect the narrative in a way that Apple can't control because frankly, you can't always control the quality of what A I creates right now. There's a developer beta of is 18.1 that features something called clean up. It's a generative A I tool that lets you erase a person or object in a photo. Yes, you can erase people from existence as Mac rumors likes to show off in this video clip. And even though it's not fully baked, you can expect Apple to want to talk about this and other tools as a coming feature in the new batch of iphones. Now, some folks already are comparing Apple's early a product to the photo erasing tools in Google and Galaxy phones. Google didn't hold back its magic editor tool on the pixel nine lets people add anything they want to a photo with incredible ease. So you don't know what is real and what is fabricated without any effort put in. There's no putting the genie back in the bottle over at the verge. They created something that looks like a bike accident in this photo with nothing more than a text prompt. Now, Apple no longer has control of the narrative. We're not talking anymore about what the iphone can do. We're looking at how Apple will handle this ethically gray zone. You see when trickery becomes the selling feature, expect critics to look at how Apple handles the messaging here in its presentation is Apple still talking about how the camera makes your photos look perfect or is Apple talking about how its camera helps you alter the truth of the moment. On September 9th, Apple is going to be talking about much more than just the iphone 16 and A I. We're expecting to hear about new Apple watches and airpods devices that can also tap into the power of A I. This is also when Apple could tease up new features in Apple services. You know, these iphone events can be big productions and you never know if there's a one more thing surprise. But to me, the biggest surprise is to see how the iphone 16 could be the start of a new chapter and how Apple handles iphone upgrades and events where the software might be more important than the hardware. And what happens when that software is fragmented depending on where you reside. We will be watching Monday when Apple streams the news at 10 a.m. Pacific 1 p.m. Eastern time and I'll be on cnet's youtube channel with pre show highlights and post show analysis. I'm joined by my CNET colleague, Scott Stein. So come back Monday and I'm sure we will have plenty to talk about. Thanks for watching.