Apple Intelligence arrives in Australia, transforming iPhones, iPads and Macs

Apple says its new AI tools will transform how people use their iPhones and computers – and there was a reason why it took its time to launch in Australia. Here’s what you need to know.

Apple chief executive Tim Cook says Apple Intelligence, which the company made available in Australian English on Thursday, will “transform what users can do”.

Apple has launched its much-hyped artificial intelligence tools in Australia and says it will pay a bounty of up to $US1m ($1.57m) to anyone who can pierce its privacy protections, as it sets “a new standard” in security.

The $US3.75 trillion tech titan says its version of AI, dubbed “Apple Intelligence”, will change the way people use iPhones and its other products.

It has redesigned its voice assistant Siri, which can link to ChatGPT, bypassing Google to answer queries, such as “where is the best place to see wildlife in Sydney”. A user then communicates with Siri via voice or text to refine search results, even if they stumble over their words.

Apple chief executive Tim Cook said Apple Intelligence, which the company made available in Australian English on Thursday, would “transform what users can do with our products – and what our products can do for our users”.

“Our unique approach combines generative AI with a user’s personal context to deliver truly helpful intelligence. And it can ­access that information in a completely private and secure way to help users do the things that matter most to them,” Mr Cook said.

Apple Intelligence includes an “Image Playground”.

Google’s core business is under threat as people are increasingly getting answers from AI and younger generations use other platforms to gather information. The quality of the results on Google’s search engine is also deteriorating as the web is flooded with AI-generated content.

But Google still has a 94 per cent share of Australia’s internet search market, with new AI-powered tools yet to dent its effective monopoly, according to the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission.

Apple vice-president of worldwide product marketing Bob Borchers said that, while it was difficult to know how Apple Intelligence was going to change behaviours, the company would “continue to take big steps forward”.

“Our goal is to make it just natural, seamless and intuitive, so you just have easy access … to the information that you need,” Mr Borchers said.

Apple Intelligence can prioritise and summarise emails.

Apple announced its AI offering at its World Wide Developer Conference in June – six months after rival Samsung unveiled its AI features across its smartphone range and a month after Microsoft revealed its new Copilot+ PCs.

But Mr Borchers said the launch of Apple Intelligence came after years of development across its hardware.

“We have been investing for many, many years in the capabilities and the power of Apple silicon, which is focused on low power, high performance compute that can handle more and more complex capabilities,” he said. “We innovated even with the neural engine many years ago, and continue to build on that, and that has been the powerhouse behind the machine learning and AI features that we’ve had to date.

“So some feel that we’re just coming into this. The fact of the matter is, we’ve actually been delivering AI features for many, many years already. As it comes to Apple intelligence, we knew what we wanted to do was to build this very integrated and very private experience. We didn’t want just a point solution or a single feature, we wanted these experiences to be woven throughout the system and woven across your platforms.”

Apple Intelligence features a range of writing tools.

Apple has integrated ChatGPT – which launched two years ago, sparking the generative AI boom – into Apple Intelligence, prompting criticism from Elon Musk, who threatened to ban his employees using the company’s computers.

Mr Borchers said privacy was paramount and much of the Apple Intelligence features were performed on device, “so that your information never leaves your devices”. When tasks are diverted to the cloud, Apple has developed a new system called “Private Cloud Compute”.

Mr Borchers said Private Cloud Compute extended the “privacy promise of iPhone”, with requests erased as soon as it was served back. An iPhone also could not connect to any server that had not been audited.

If someone does find a vulnerability, Apple will pay up to $US1m, which it says was best in class for developing these kinds of systems.

“We believe it is really novel, but we also believe it’s really important for our customers in order to be able to deliver Apple Intelligence in a way that they can be confident it maintains their privacy and security of their data,” Mr Borchers said.

Users are also asked if they would like a request to go to ChatGPT. Apple masks a user’s IP address, to ensure users remain anonymous. People can also log in to their ChatGPT account if they wish.

Apple has launched its new AI tools dubbed Apple Intelligence in Australia.

Other features include the ability to take a picture and look up that item online – a similar function to Google Lens. People can also turn sketches into more refined artwork, make their own “genmojis”, edit pictures, summarise lengthy documents or emails, polish their writing or change writing styles to be more professional, humorous or even write an invitation in the style of a murder mystery.

Apple is opening the technology up to developers, to create new apps. “It’s about delivering those foundational building blocks to those incredibly creative folks to then go, ‘imagine what could be possible’,” Mr Borchers said.

“It’s hard to forecast where they’re going to go, but I am 100 per cent confident that they’re going to do some incredible things, and that’s why we’re so focused on making sure that we have those rich, robust APIs. We’re giving them access to the tools and technologies so that they can take advantage of this as easily as possible, and then help us chart the future.”