Apple Intelligence delayed?

Apple will reportedly delay introduction of Apple Intelligence on iPhones until it ships the iOS 18.1 update after the iPhone 16 ships this fall. I don’t see this as solely because the tech won’t be ready — developers are already testing it — but suspect regulatory challenges and Apple’s own wider deployment plans led to the delay.

The Artificial Intelligence (AI) hype is all encompassing. The industry is spending billions on it, electricity grids are struggling to maintain it, and regulators are preparing to constrain it. It is a speeding train packed with potential, but momentum is so rapid a mistake could send it off the rails. 

That’s a concern across the industry, one regulators are also attempting to understand. US regulation seems voluntary right now, while in Europe the much tougher EU Artificial Intelligence Act should come into effect this year. 

Apple joins the White House 

In the US, Apple has joined the White House Voluntary AI Safeguards program with 15 other major firms, including Amazon, Google, Meta, and Open AI. The aim of the group is to move toward safe, secure, and transparent development of AI technology.

The goal: to “mitigate AI’s safety and security risks, protect Americans’ privacy, advance equity and civil rights, stand up for consumers and workers, promote innovation and competition, advance American leadership around the world, and more,” the White House said.

While there is always a big element of poacher-turn-gatekeeper in any voluntary industry group, this slightly more laissez-faire approach will probably benefit the industry.

Europe is tougher

It’s different in Europe, where the Act takes the form of a sprawling piece of legislation that will take time to fully comprehend and implement. I expect the complexity of this law means most providers in the AI space will eventually mimic Apple and delay the introduction of services while they figure out how to be compliant. The laws are also being introduced in a staggered way across three years, which could make it harder to reach compliance.

Similar laws are being put in place globally, creating a complex regulatory environment in which most AI services will be forced to slow new product integration. For Apple as a platform provider, the regulatory complexity is amplified.

In this context, it makes a lot more sense for the company to switch on any of Apple’s new Intelligence services only once it has achieved enough clarity to guarantee compliance, particularly in the EU where the company has said it’s delaying the services pending such clarity. (Outgoing EU Commissioner Margrethe Vestager’s seemingly antagonistic response to that request underlines why Apple was concerned.)

Smoke and fire

That’s not to say there’s no smoke at all around this potential fire. Apple Intelligence will not be an iPhone-only animal, it will be available across the company’s entire ecosystem: iPhones, iPads, and Macs. That means the system needs to be widely tested across all these products, including analysis around compliance (above).

We know Apple is likely to have news to share about Macs and iPads this fall, as that’s when the company usually updates its hardware. That news is likely to include the introduction of new Apple Silicon processors, and it’s almost a certainty it will lean deep into its core messages around privacy, edge device AI, secure AI, energy and hardware integration when it does introduce new hardware.

Happy Thanksgiving

Teasing out those launches with the introduction of new AI features across its operating systems will only boost attention around the launch of new hardware. That attention should turn into sales, particularly as we hit the US shopping season and computer users consider the personal and economic consequences of the recent Microsoft/Crowdstrike failure. Against this backdrop, there’s never been a better time to introduce the world’s most advanced and best-designed hardware equipped with the world’s safest and most privacy-conscious form of AI service, Apple Intelligence. 

Summing up

With all of this in mind, I find it hard to be too concerned about Apple’s “delay” in launching its AI service. Regulation and its own internal product launch plans mean a later launch will still excite consumers, while helping it realize the much anticipated bounce in hardware sales everyone now expects as AI goes mainstream. I’m just not entirely certain any of us are truly ready for what the consequences of mass market AI might be. 

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