It’s already happened just over a week since Apple Intelligence took center stage the inaugural WWDC 2024 keynote, where we could also see the main news of future versions of their operating systems. It was an interesting presentation for sure, but we weren’t particularly surprised as it was more than known that Apple would be focusing a lot on its commitment to artificial intelligence.

As I said then I think Apple has caught up, something commendable, considering that it started from a situation with a considerable delay to its main competitors and that they also knew how to find a way to give it their personal touch, to differentiate themselves from them. Whether these elements are more or less important depends, of course, on each person’s personal criteria. In my case, I believe it makes the Apple Intelligence proposition valuable, but I understand that there are those who believe it does nothing.

What is very interesting, apart from the technological development itself, is the reaction it caused, because a quick review of recent publications dedicated to Apple Intelligence shows us that the scope is simply huge. I could read from when Apple reinvented AI to when Apple completely betrayed its founding spirit by joining a passing fad. And of course many positions between the two extremes, which certainly seem rather forced to me.

Among the biggest proponents of Apple Intelligence, with the exception of those for whom artificial intelligence doesn’t seem to have existed until Monday of last week, the most common argument concerns privacy. As we told you before, the workload will be split between the device itself and the cloud, but it will be done in what they call Private Cloud Computing (private cloud computing), i.e. a completely private instance on one of the company’s servers.

On the other hand, and as I already mentioned, they also focus on the fact that Apple Intelligence does not invent anything, but Yes, it gives an interesting twist to what already exists., improving integrations and exploring features that have not yet been fully developed on other platforms. We already know that Apple’s great talent is not in inventing something new, but in taking what exists and, after passing it through its design and engineering department, reformulates it in a very intelligent way.

Of course, not everything is good. As I said, I have read extreme views on the negative side, but like their reasoning on the other side, I will ignore them as well. In the field of reasonableness, therefore, the most widespread criticism is that Apple Intelligence leaves behind all currently existing iPhone modelswith only one with the exception of iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max. It was to be expected that not all features would reach the previous generations, but this excessive limit seems disrespectful to all the people who bought an iPhone in the last 2-3 years.

The argument Apple used for this cut, as we can see in this video, is that only the Apple A17 Pro SoC that powers the iPhone is capable of processing local workloads at the required speed. A fairly common theory (and one that makes a lot of sense) is that the limitation preventing this is not in the SoC, but rather in the amount of RAM present in these devices.

Another relatively repeated criticism is related to ChatGPT integration, which, while not part of Apple Intelligence core, is part of Apple’s design in relation to artificial intelligence. In this regard, we could see many reactions, some so… let’s say typical of a figure like Elon Musk, but at this point it is important to note that the use of ChatGPT on iOS is completely optional.

In my case, I admit that I agree with both the positive points and a large part of the negative points, especially the placement of the border on the iPhone 15 Pro, so I think Apple has done a good job and, as I said, it has caught up even though it is ahead we still have a lot of work to do. What do you think?