Apple Intelligence requires more and more storage space on users’ devices: while the manufacturer’s in-house AI initially took up 4GB of space on a Mac, iPhone or iPad, it now takes up an impressive 7GB. It was clear that the memory required for AI models would increase over time. The speed at which this is happening is still astonishing.
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The AI package will not start in Germany and other EU countries until April 2025, then possibly even in German. With a workaround, Apple Intelligence can be activated on iPhones in Germany and used in English. The higher storage requirement results from the strategy of running AI models on local device storage rather than the cloud. Apple touts this as a benefit in terms of privacy and freedom.
Requires almost twice as much memory
With the release of iOS 18.2, the storage space required for Apple Intelligence increased significantly: 7 GB, which is almost twice as much as before according to manufacturer Now required for Apple Intelligence – on every device on which the application is to be used. Unfortunately, there is no solution for users with less available storage space – reducing the storage requirement, for example by turning off individual functions, is not possible.
With higher requirements came new tasks. With the new “Image Playground” app, Apple makes it possible to create comic-style images and use portraits and photos from your own media library. Users can create any number of new emojis through a text prompt on iPhones and iPads – Apple calls them “Genmojis”. This function will come to Macs later.
So far, most of the improvements promised to Siri as part of Apple Intelligence are still missing. With these, the storage space required for AI models is likely to increase again. Among other things, voice assistance systems will in the future be able to gain deeper insight into app data and thus the user’s personal context, be able to combine the information and, for example, control app functions via voice commands. Will be able to do. Implementation is currently mainly expected in iOS 18.4, perhaps its first components will appear earlier. It appears that a completely redesigned Siri system based on the language model will only arrive with iOS 19 in the summer.
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