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iPhone 16 specs may be sufficient for iOS 18 AI and Siri

Posted on by darion

Back in November, I said I would buy the iPhone 16 Pro Max if I needed it to get the best possible Apple AI experience on iPhone. Rumors from Korea at the time claimed that Siri would receive a major update in iOS 18. Siri is expected to become the “ultimate virtual assistant” and “a killer AI app for accessibility on a wide range of Apple devices.”

With less than two weeks until WWDC 2024, a new leak reiterates these early rumors and details Apple’s AI features in iOS 18. Siri may indeed get a major AI overhaul in iOS 18. Siri will even let you control apps on your iPhone in ways that aren’t possible This is not possible now.

The virtual assistant will supposedly let you move files, send and delete emails, edit photos, share content, and even summarize an article – all using your voice. Nothing similar exists on Android either. But Google will likely do the same with Gemini-enabled Assistant on its mobile operating system.

I think these Siri AI capabilities will work wonders on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Vision Pro. If voice control becomes a reality, multitasking on Apple devices could reach a completely new dimension.

Siri features like these will be enough to keep your iPhone updated this fall. And if Mark Gurman’s new tidbit is accurate, you won’t necessarily have to upgrade to the Pro version when you buy the iPhone 16 this year.

Gurman wrote Bloomberg a report detailing the advanced Siri features available on iPhone after updating to iOS 18. It also previously explained the generative artificial intelligence features that will come to iPhone sooner. Most of them will run on-device, not in the cloud, he said.

Between these stories information published a separate report from Apple explaining in more detail how Apple will protect user privacy for iOS 18 AI features that require cloud computing.

The message is that privacy will be a priority when using AI on iPhone. This aspect is even more important if Gurman’s descriptions of the advanced features of the Siri assistant are accurate.

Apple’s operating systems are said to determine which functions can be processed locally and which must be sent to the cloud. And let me tell you right now, I want to make sure my next iPhone is well-equipped to handle as many iOS 18 AI features as possible. If that means I’ll need an A18 Pro chip to power the iPhone 16 Pro, so be it.

This is where things get interesting. Gurman posted the above tidbit on X, reacting to his recent Siri story. So it’s no surprise that Apple will use artificial intelligence to improve iPhone updates. I said the same thing in November. However, the on-device AI requirements won’t be as stringent as I expected:

Apple is betting that new AI features in the iPhone will encourage users to update their devices. Many of the AI ​​features available on the device will require an iPhone 15 Pro or later to function. Meanwhile, Macs and iPads will need at least an M1 chip.

I’m still on iPhone 14 Pro, which will be two years old when I get the iPhone 16 version. If the above claim is accurate, the A18 on non-Pro iPhone 16 models should be enough to process AI features on the device in iOS 18.

Apple has paid close attention to the capabilities of the neural engine in the M4 chip that powers the new iPad Pros. The same neural engine should go to the A18 and A18 Pro systems that will power the new iPhones. This should guarantee a similar experience with on-device AI processing.

Rumors also say that all iPhone 16 models will come with 8GB RAM. We know from Apple’s published AI research that it is exploring ways to optimize AI performance on the device with the phone’s more limited resources.

None of this has been confirmed, but many of the iPhone rumors turn out to be accurate. If everything falls into place, the base iPhone 16 model should be an amazing Apple AI device.