Apple – surprisingly to some observers – also implemented its long-announced integration of ChatGPT into Apple Intelligence with the first developer beta of iOS 18.2 this week. It was now possible to conduct preliminary experiments with chatbots, intended to complement Siri. It turns out that Apple has managed the implementation well overall, but there are still some flaws in the implementation. Furthermore, some users are likely to feel fundamentally uncomfortable that in the future a “foreign” AI system will run on their iPhone, iPad or Mac – and (very) close to the operating system.
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ChatGPT is an opt-in
At least when it comes to the latter question, you have to reassure frightened users: ChatGPT is not “on” by default and OpenAI does not receive any data when you turn on your iPhone with Apple Intelligence. Ships (at least that’s what Apple promises). Instead, it is a separate switch in System Settings that must be explicitly activated – which also includes an extensive information dialog. “When iPhone works with ChatGPT, it can do much more for you,” it says.
The three main functions are Siri integration – which should be more thorough and can even reveal information about photos or documents if you want – text generation and, Apple’s in-house writing tools for creating (better) text. If desired, use your own ChatGPT account to synchronize requests and use the better (because paid) model. According to Apple, the latter is completely optional. The requests themselves should not be traceable to the user; Apple essentially switches a proxy in the middle, and there is no direct access to the OpenAI servers. However, since inquiries made to a chatbot often allow conclusions to be drawn about the user, one should keep in mind that the data ends up outside of Apple. It was initially unclear whether training could be done with data coming from the iPhone & Co. – this is (unfortunately) the norm for many ChatGPT accounts outside of the business license.
OpenAI generates images through Siri
As mentioned, ChatGPT is addressed via Siri – this can be done via voice or “text to Siri”. If you want, you can turn off Siri requests to go in the direction of ChatGPT. If you want to use ChatGPT a lot, you can do so, but you’re putting yourself in the hands of OpenAI. It is also possible to send all requests to ChatGPT by default by simply saying “Ask ChatGPT”. The image generator DALL-E 3 is also integrated, you can now use Siri to create AI recordings – interestingly, this was even before Apple released its Image Playground, including Genmoji and image wall functions, as several beta Users are still in it. Queue. ChatGPT or DALL-E 3 also produces photorealistic recordings, which Apple does not plan to do.
When it comes to writing tools, ChatGPT now makes it possible to create text from scratch. Previously, Apple’s own tools could only rewrite existing content, “translate” it into other formats and check for errors. There is now a “Compose” button that uses ChatGPT. In practice, it still happens that ChatGPT takes a little longer to respond. Apple apparently has not created a “fast lane” for OpenAI servers as part of the developer beta. Incidentally, Apple does not plan to integrate ChatGPT (even) deeply into the operating system – new Siri functions such as user context (e.g. email, address book, appointment) use Apple technology. Will be reserved for and will be largely localized to Apple devices when they are released in the coming months.
update
Apple on Apple Card penalties: “Operate fair and transparent financial services” October 25, 2024,
10:51
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Apple announced within the operating system that OpenAI will not train its models with data from Apple users. However, this only applies if you No Logged in with your personal OpenAI account. If this is the case, OpenAI’s data protection policy itself applies, which, as mentioned, provides training with user data in many cases.
(B.Sc.)
Apple on Apple Card penalties: “Operate fair and transparent financial services”
