Apple CEO Tim Cook has promised this year to "open new ground for generative AI," but when introducing this to customers, the company plans to slow it down.

In the latest edition of his Power On newsletter, Bloomberg's Apple expert Mark Gurman said Cupertino would be marketing iOS18's upcoming AI capabilities as a "preview." It's a good idea to take a look at some of the things you can do to help you get the most out of your life. 

Gurman believes this may indicate that "the technology has not yet been fully baked in" and notes an ominous historical precedent: "Siri in 2011 Beta tethered

in a newsletter, Gurman said that APPLE's approach is to create AI tools that "appeal to the practical side of users." Introduced in WWDC2024, the idea is to "leave the Wizvan feature to other companies," which is led by something called "Project Greymatter," Gurman says will be integrated into core apps such as Safari, Photos and Notes as well as ios itself to enhance notifications.

Most of this is done on the device as long as your iPhone, iPad, or Mac is from the past few years. Cloud-based AI tricks are handled through M2Ultra-powered machines in the data center.

There's more to this year's work, including voice memo transcription, AI photo touch-ups, improved Siri, summaries, message suggestions, and better search in Spotlight. Gurman says he also sees generated AI being brought to emojis using "software that allows users to create custom emojis on the fly based on what they're sending text messages."

However, as Gurman points out, many of these features will sound an old hat to anyone who has used a recent Samsung or Google Android phone. Given Apple has already been playing catch up with the largely established features, "Preview" label is a worrying touch?

If Apple labeled the AI feature as a preview (and Gurman says this may be just for the beta period), there are several ways to see it.

First, there's a pessimistic view: Apple is so far behind the competition feeling the need to reassure users that this is not a finished article.

By the time this month's iOS developer preview comes out, ChatGPT will blow everyone away in 2022-11 and Google will have to wait until the Magic Eraser tool-powered article is released 1 month ago. It has been more than 18 months since Pixel6 was launched. Mobile AI offerings have only become more sophisticated in the months in between, and Apple's initial offering may seem pretty overwhelming in comparison

Or there are more Apple-positive ways to see it: that a cautious approach is the only responsible way to tackle AI adoption. 

At a recent I/O developer conference, Google's message was that AI is sophisticated enough to be front and center of search services. Currently, the company is desperately trying to get rid of the wrong, stupid, or utterly dangerous advice that ai summaries are spitting out. 

In the "preview" tag, Apple is basically saying: "Think critically, because this is an unfinished beta software and some things may be a bit quirky" — AI feels like a more sensible way to approach seismic changes that promise to deliver in the coming years.

When the developer preview is released, you get a better idea of which of these analyses are correct, and seeing for yourself how Apple's AI approach is implemented, how useful it is, and how well it performs its tasks will be the first step Apple has taken. It will reveal whether it is justified in its attention.