Apple gets into AI: all the news on iOS 18, macOS Sequoia, and more

Updating a newer iPhone, iPad, or Mac to the latest software could have an unintended side effect of re-enabling Apple Intelligence. Users who turned off Apple’s AI features in iOS / iPadOS 18.3 or macOS 15.3 — the first set of updates to enable the features by default — have reported that the software suite turned itself on again after they updated to iOS 18.3.1 or macOS 15.3.1, which were released yesterday with notes about fixing a security flaw on iPhones and iPads.

Reports from MacRumors and on Reddit note that those who see the Apple “Welcome” screen after updating find they have to turn Apple Intelligence off again afterward, even if they had disabled it previously. Developer Jeff Johnson also noted inconsistent results, with it turning on for one laptop but not another while installing the same update.

Apple released iOS 18.3.1, iPadOS 18.3.1, and iPadOS 17.7.5 today to address a zero-day exploit that might allow attackers to access data on a locked device.

The update patches the OS against an attack on USB Restricted Mode, which Apple first implemented in devices with the release of iOS 11.4.1 in 2018, to prevent attempts to bypass device passcodes and get around the encryption safeguards that protect user’s data. According to Apple, the exploit reported by Bill Marczak of The Citizen Lab “may have been exploited in an extremely sophisticated attack against specific targeted individuals.”

iOS 18.3 is here, and it’s bringing changes to AI notification summaries on your iPhone. In iOS 18.3’s release notes, Apple says it has temporarily disabled notification summaries for news and entertainment apps.

The change, which was first spotted in the iOS 18.3 beta, comes after the BBC called out the feature for incorrectly summarizing one of its headlines. If you opt-in to the feature, Apple will notify you once it becomes available again.

Apple Intelligence will be switched on by default, starting in iOS 18.3, iPadOS 18.3, and macOS 15.3. In release candidate notes spotted by 9to5Mac, Apple says it will switch on AI-powered features automatically for new users or those upgrading to the latest versions of its operating systems.

The AI update will only apply to devices that support Apple Intelligence, including the iPhone 15 Pro and later, iPads and Macs with the Apple Silicon M1 chip or later, and the most recent version of the iPad mini.

The BBC reports Apple will change how iPhones and other devices display Apple Intelligence-summarized notifications to make it clearer to users when its AI tech has adjusted the words. Not long after the still-in-beta feature launched in the UK in December, the news organization complained about how it rewrote a headline about the UnitedHealthcare shooting suspect, incorrectly suggesting that the BBC reported Luigi Mangione shot himself.

Since then, according to the BBC, Apple’s summaries had incorrectly rewritten notifications from its app to name a PDC World Darts Championship winner before the event even started and falsely claiming that Rafael Nadal revealed himself as gay. “These AI summarisations by Apple do not reflect – and in some cases completely contradict – the original BBC content,” writes the outlet.

I opened the App Store today to find an emulator I’d read about, and a new prompt appeared under the search bar inviting me to “search the way you talk.” I hadn’t seen the prompt before on my iPhone 13 Pro Max, and quite frankly, I had missed the iOS 18.1 update note about it.

As it describes, Apple’s update in October added, “App Store search lets you use natural language to find what you’re looking for more easily.” It’s also not the only place Apple is adding natural language search with iOS 18, in addition to Photos, Music, and Apple TV.

We’ve already seen our fair share of bad Apple Intelligence-summarized notifications, but now that the feature is live in the UK, the BBC isn’t finding it so funny. The summarized notification mucked up a BBC headline about the UnitedHealthcare shooting suspect, falsely suggesting the network reported that Luigi Mangione shot himself.

In a report about the notification, a spokesperson for the network says it contacted Apple “to raise this concern and fix the problem.”

Following the official release of Apple’s new Share Item Location feature with iOS 18.2 yesterday, United Airlines has announced it has integrated it into its mobile app. Passengers finding themselves at their destination without their luggage can now file a delayed baggage report through United’s app along with a Share Item Location link that will potentially expedite a reunion.

Passengers will need to ensure the United mobile app is up to date, but once a report has been submitted with a Share Item Location link connected to an AirTag or a tracker that’s compatible with Apple’s Find My network, customer service agents will be able to determine its current or last known location using an interactive map, according to United Airlines. Having access to the Find My network data for a missing bag will allow the airline “to more quickly find delayed bags and reunite them with customers.”

I was about to okay my friend’s restaurant suggestion for lunch — an Indian place on 2nd — when Apple Intelligence swooped in with another idea. “How about The Ritz?” appeared above the keyboard as a suggested response, highlighted in that telltale AI rainbow glow. The other suggested response, “Sounds good!” was much more reasonable. But ignoring both, I typed out my affirmative answer, hopped on my bike, and headed to downtown Seattle, where there are, to my knowledge, zero Ritzes.

Suggested replies aren’t new in iOS 18.2, but they’re a piece of the Apple Intelligence feature set that’s falling into place with this week’s public release of 18.2. Those suggestions I got while planning lunch kind of sum up my whole experience with Apple’s AI up ’til now: occasionally helpful, sometimes way off base, and often good for a laugh. But once the novelty wears off, it’s easily ignored — just like the AI feature sets on every other so-called AI smartphone I’ve used this year.

Apple is bringing layered recordings to the Voice Memos app on the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max. With the new feature, you can record vocals while listening to an instrumental track out loud in iOS 18.2.

Even though the microphone will technically pick up the instrumentals, Apple says the iPhone 16’s A18 Pro chip allows it to isolate vocals with “advanced processing and machine learning,” letting Voice Memos create a separate track with just your voice. From there, you can mix the two layers, as well as edit or listen to them separately.

Since its release, I’ve mostly used Apple’s Vision Pro like a movie theater. The VR headset is an amazing way to watch Dune — but beyond that, it hasn’t really lived up to its potential as a general-purpose computing device.

Today, that’s finally starting to change. With the update to visionOS 2.2, Apple is seriously upgrading the headset’s ability to work with a Mac. It’s probably the closest thing the Vision Pro has to a killer app.

Apple announced the release of iOS 18.2, iPadOS 18.2, and macOS Sequoia 15.2, adding many new Apple Intelligence features, including Image Playground, Genmoji, and integration with ChatGPT. After a morning announcement for the new updates, they started rolling out widely at about 1PM ET, bringing along new updates for the Apple TV, HomePod, and Vision Pro too.

With Image Playground, users can generate an image from a prompt or make something based on one of Apple’s suggestions. However, Image Playground seems to opt for cartoony or stylistic photos instead of photorealistic images, which could prevent potential misuse. Image Playground is available as a standalone app, alongside being integrated into Messages, Freeform, and Keynote.

A Norwegian payment app called Vipps is the first service to take advantage of a new, more open iOS ecosystem thanks to EU regulations. Starting today, Norwegians can use Vipps for tap-to-pay transactions and online payments, and they can even set the app as the default payment option on their iPhones, as reported by MacRumors.

It’s all thanks to commitments Apple made in response to scrutiny from EU regulators.

iPhones, iPads, and Macs with Apple Intelligence now have a unique AI feature that summarizes notifications for you. Starting with iOS / iPadOS 18.1 and macOS 15.1, when multiple notifications pile up for a given app, the tiny LLM that Apple has crammed into our stuff tries its hardest to algorithm up a brief overview for you. (Part of a group text with lots of people? It’ll try to tell you what they’re discussing.) This is sometimes good. It is very often funny.

I like the way the summaries handle some of my Apple Home notifications — like when I read “Garage changed status multiple times; recently closed” in lieu of a stack of messages about my garage door. The wording changes, but without fail (so far), it’s been right about whether the last thing it did was open or close, so I don’t have to open Apple Home or my garage camera to verify it. (I still do sometimes because LLMs can be lying liars.)

Apple has released iOS / iPadOS 18.2 into public beta, as spotted by MacRumors. It includes access to the second wave of Apple Intelligence features that were already available to developers, like the AI-generated custom emoji feature Genmoji and the Image Playground feature that generates pictures.

It also adds ChatGPT integration, Visual Intelligence for searching using iPhone 16 cameras, a more robust Siri with improved responses to queries, and OpenAI’s ChatGPT is an option to step in and answer instead. ChatGPT access is free and doesn’t require an account to use it.

The iPhone could finally show you how long it’ll take to finish charging. Code spotted in the second iOS 18.2 beta by 9to5Mac shows a new “BatteryIntelligence” feature that will let you receive a notification with the iPhone’s estimated charging time.

Some Android phones already show how long it takes to charge — a feature that has become increasingly helpful considering the many different types of chargers, cables, and charging protocols that are available. The iPhone’s “BatteryIntelligence” feature still appears to be a work in progress, though, which means might have to wait a little longer until its official release, according to 9to5Mac.

Apple Intelligence has finally launched in US English, and if you’re in the EU, you’ll be able to use the new AI features on your iPhone and iPad starting in April, according to an Irish Apple newsroom post.

When the features roll out to iPhones and iPads in the EU, they’ll include “include many of the core features of Apple Intelligence, including Writing Tools, Genmoji, a redesigned Siri with richer language understanding, ChatGPT integration, and more,” Apple says in the post.