Apple is getting closer to releasing its own suite of artificial intelligence features, and with every step it takes, it’s compared with AI built-ins already on the market. Early peeks at Cupertino’s offerings reveal that Apple Intelligence isn’t anywhere near as helpful or impressive as Google’s Gemini, which is easily Apple’s biggest competitor in the AI space.
This disclosure comes from Apple insider Mark Gurman. Though Gurman has said for a while that Apple Intelligence is “far from living up to the hype,” the suite’s disappointments became more obvious after Google showed off its Pixel 9 series last week. Thanks to their Tensor G4 chips and increased RAM, the phones in Google’s new multi-tiered lineup run the Gemini Nano model locally, offering improvements to the camera, keyboard, and several generative AI tools. Gurman calls the latter “gee-whiz features”—tools that cross-reference your photos with your calendar, change the background of a photo with a tap, and upgrade video quality to something Google calls “8K-like.”
These features leave Apple Intelligence in the dust, according to Gurman. In the latest issue of his Power On newsletter, Gurman wrote that Apple is “years behind rivals like Google” in the AI sphere. Despite Apple leading the built-in smart assistant space with Siri, Google’s long history of scouring the internet for information has allowed it to charge ahead. Gurman also believes Apple’s focus on privacy limits its ability to “fully exploit AI.”
Apple Intelligence can transcribe or summarize your phone calls, but more visual AI features are reportedly in Google’s wheelhouse, not Apple’s
Credit: Apple
“Apple and Google are not only miles apart in AI—they are in a completely different universe,” Gurman writes.
That isn’t good news for a company spending $1 billion to catch up with Google and other rivals through AI alone. Apple has developed a whole new chip line, the M4 series, with AI front of mind. And while Apple Intelligence probably won’t be ready for the iOS 18 release loosely slated for this fall, Apple is reportedly upgrading the forthcoming iPhone 16’s RAM to accommodate the suite, which, as most AI functions do, requires a little extra working memory.
We heard earlier this year that Apple’s version of AI “substantially” outperforms GPT4, the technology behind Gemini, OpenAI’s ChatGPT, and Microsoft’s Copilot. But that area of performance specifically involves language processing—a concession Gurman gives Apple. “Apple Intelligence will do stuff like summarize your messages and make voice-memo transcripts,” he writes, but Pixel will offer more of those gee-whiz features.