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Apple Intelligence is essentially a hip brand name for Apple’s new focus on AI, brought on by the huge success of the ChatGPT.

Here’s a look at some of the best features of Apple Intelligence, which comes to Britain via the new iOS 18.2 operating system.

ChatGPT-Siri integration

Arguably the biggest part of Apple Intelligence is the integration of OpenAI’s hugely popular chatbot ChatGPT with Siri, Apple’s built-in virtual assistant.

With better “language understanding capabilities” powered by ChatGPT, Siri will assist you in multiple apps and “speed up everyday tasks,” Apple said.

You can press and hold the side button to activate Siri in the normal way, but with ChatGPT behind it, Siri can “answer thousands of questions about how to do something,” which wasn’t possible before.

For example, you could say, “Play that podcast Jamie recommended” and Siri will locate and play the episode, without the user having to remember whether it was mentioned in a text message or email.

Or you can ask, “When does Mom’s flight land?” and Siri will find the flight details and compare it to real-time flight tracking to provide an arrival time.

AI-generated emoji

If you can’t quite find the emoji you’re looking for during chat conversations, Apple has the answer.

One of the nicer parts of Apple Intelligence is the AI-generated emoji, which Apple has dubbed “Genmoji” (a mix of “generated” and “emoji”).

In the Messages app, you can type a short description of the emoji you want, such as “smiley relaxing with cucumbers” or “squirrel DJ.”

Similar to AI tools that only need a few words to create weird works of art, from that one prompt Genmoji returns an AI-generated approximation of what you had in mind.

If you don’t like what the AI ​​has created for you, there are a few backup options you can choose from.

Clean up

Apple’s Clean Up tool for the Photos app makes extremely clean edits to photos – without any signs that the module has been tampered with in any way.

This allows users to remove ‘distracting objects’ from the background of a photo, for example a photobomber in the background of a family photo.

Clean Up is very similar to Google’s ‘Magic Eraser’ photo editing technology for its Pixel phones, which has been heavily promoted in Google ads in recent years.

But the technology has been described by some as ‘Orwellian’ because it can distort reality and ‘create a false memory’.

Referring to Clean Up, one commenter said it “can be abused” because it “makes removal of evidence easy.”

Image Playground

AI also powers a new image generation tool called ‘Image Playground’, which is available in multiple apps including Posts and Pages.

Image Playground allows users to create images in seconds, choosing from three styles: ‘animation’, ‘illustration’ and ‘sketch’.

A promo image appears to show a photo of a person being turned into a 3D video game-style avatar wearing a space suit in the “animation” setting.

Like Genmoji, this “exciting” image creation tool will help iPhone owners “communicate and express themselves in new ways,” the company says.

Movie memories

Thanks to an iPhone’s vast media storage capabilities, it’s always tempting to look back at your photos and videos for a touch of nostalgia.

Apple recognizes this and has come up with ‘Movie Memories’, an AI tool that creates the perfect home video to watch on your device.

By typing a short description – for example ‘last summer in our garden’ – the AI ​​can search your media library and arrange photos and clips into a movie ‘with its own storyline’.

And because no movie is as good without a little music, Apple Music gives you music suggestions that match your memory.

Once again, Apple emphasizes the privacy aspect of using an AI to search your private life.

“As with all Apple Intelligence features, user photos and videos are kept private on the device and not shared with Apple or anyone else,” it says.

AI writing tools

Using AI to make your writing extra concise is not new. For example, Microsoft’s Copilot AI creates first drafts and suggests edits in Word.

But now Apple is jumping on the bandwagon with its own AI-powered writing tools.

The technology will rewrite, proofread and summarize text in multiple apps, including Mail, Notes and Pages, as well as some third-party apps.

“Whether it’s tidying up class notes, making sure a blog post reads just right, or making sure an email is perfectly written, Writing Tools help users feel more confident in their writing,” the company says.