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Apple Debuted AI On The IPhone Today. Here's What To Look Out For

CNN  — 

Apple Intelligence launched on Monday, but the rollout is just a glimpse of how Apple hopes to transform its products with artificial intelligence.

The tech giant unveiled initial features of Apple Intelligence — its suite of AI tools — on select devices with its latest software update for iPhones, iPads and Macs.

Apple's AI features for iPhones will be available for free to users with any iPhone 16, iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max, who update to iOS 18.1. Apple Intelligence is also available for iPad and Mac models that support iPadOS 18.1 and macOS Sequoia 15.

With Apple Intelligence, the company is implementing its first set of generative AI tools that aim to change how people use their iPhones and cement Apple's stake in the AI race against competitors like Microsoft and Google. Generative AI is the technology that produces unique text and images in response to user-prompts — from obscure images to relentlessly catchy music.

The release of Apple Intelligence comes on the heels of the iPhone 16 release in September, which is equipped with chip hardware designed to support Apple's AI-powered features.

A pivot to AI has been a focus for Apple since it first unveiled the suite of Apple Intelligence features at the annual Worldwide Developers Conference in June. Implementing new generative AI is at the forefront of Big Tech ambitions to maintain exponential growth, and after years of sluggish sales, Apple is betting on AI to boost its performance and reinvigorate its consumer base.

The Apple Intelligence features rolling out Monday include improvements to writing and editing, Siri and the Photo app.

Apple Intelligence's Writing Tools bring users improved proofreading, summarizing and editing features. Another focus of the release is Siri, which is supposed to become "more natural and conversational" with Apple Intelligence, and will appear as a glowing light when activated.

With the software update, Apple says the Photos app is "more intelligent," with the ability to search for photos and videos by typing visual descriptions, like what someone was wearing. Users will also be able to edit photos and remove unwanted visual elements with another new feature called Clean Up.

Additionally, users will be able to record and transcribe calls, with Apple Intelligence providing a summary.

Apple Intelligence's features most likely fit into the "nice to have" category rather than necessary features most new phone buyers actively seek, however.

Angelo Zino, a technology analyst at CFRA Research, told CNN in September that "you need to wait for word of mouth to trickle through the consumer base over the next couple of quarters" before consumers will see the value of the new technology.

And Apple's loyal customers or AI-curious consumers who were intrigued by images of Apple's new AI-generated "Genmoji" may feel underwhelmed by this launch, as many new features, like Image Wand — which lets users turn sketches into AI-generated images — won't be available until at least December, when iOS 18.2 debuts.

While the first set of Apple Intelligence features might leave some iPhone users wondering if that's all there is to it, some analysts are bullish on Apple's plan to implement AI across its products, largely thanks to the company's large position in the market.

Dan Ives, a managing director and senior equity analyst at Wedbush Securities, said in a note Sunday that the rollout is the start of what will be an evolving process. "Consumer AI will go through Apple's ecosystem with over 20% of the world's population ultimately interacting with AI on an Apple device the next few years," Ives said.

Apple is betting big on AI to boost its sales, and the rollout follows the iPhone 16 release, which didn't initially sell as well as Apple may have hoped. Apple sold just an estimated 37 million units in the first weekend of iPhone 16 pre-sales, down more than 12% compared to the same period last year, according to a blog post from Ming-Chi Kuo, an Apple analyst with TF International Securities.

Related article The iPhone 16 isn't selling as well as Apple may have hoped

Additionally, Apple recently cut orders for iPhone 16s by about 10 million units through the end of 2024 and into 2025, according to another blog post by Kuo. That cut will result in less production of iPhones, he noted. According to Kuo, iPhone production for the fourth quarter of 2024 is now forecast at around 80 million, down year-over-year from 84 million.

Kuo noted that he did not think Apple Intelligence would immediately boost Apple's prospects for better sales.

"Some market participants are optimistic that Apple Intelligence could dramatically boost iPhone shipments soon," Kuo said in the blog post. "However, Apple's recent order cuts suggest this optimistic expectation may not materialize in the short term."

The first rollout of Apple Intelligence features are available on devices with language settings set to American English. The ability to use Apple Intelligence in other languages like French or Japanese will roll out in 2025.

A bigger slate of AI features is expected in December when Apple debuts iOS 18.2, inclinding "Genmoji," a feature that lets users create their own emoji, along with ChatGPT-powered Siri and Writing Tools.

Apple is also planning to introduce a "visual intelligence experience" which would allow iPhone 16 users to hover their iPhone camera over objects and retrieve real-time information.

Wedbush's Ives said the implementation of Apple Intelligence will produce positive long-term results for the company.

"This will be a multi-year AI journey that will define the future for Apple with its next generation chip architecture, hardware releases and future iPhone models built around the AI foundation that many consumers will ultimately embrace," Ives said in a note.

CFRA Research's Zino said Apple's December rollout should prove more impactful than the October release.

"We do not expect the Apple Intelligence capabilities rolling out this week to have a notable impact on consumer behavior and Apple-related product sales," Zino said in an email to CNN. "Planned Apple Intelligence new features expected in December and early 2025 will be much more impactful to the company's ecosystem, in our view, and will be viewed favorably by Apple's installed base."

Apple (AAPL) will report its quarterly earnings on Thursday. Shares of Apple on Monday closed at $233.40, a gain of $1.99, or 0.86%.

Fighting AI With AI In The Modern Threat Landscape

It's not exactly breaking news to say that AI has dramatically changed the cybersecurity industry. Both attackers and defenders alike are turning to artificial intelligence to uplevel their capabilities, each striving to stay one step ahead of the other. This cat-and-mouse game is nothing new—attackers have been trying to outsmart security teams for decades, after all—but the emergence of artificial intelligence has introduced a fresh (and often unpredictable) element to the dynamic. Attackers across the globe are rubbing their hands together with glee at the prospect of leveraging this new technology to develop innovative, never-before-seen attack methods.

At least, that's the perception. But the reality is a little bit different. While it's true that attackers are increasingly leveraging AI, they are mostly using it to increase the scale and complexity of their attacks, refining their approach to existing tactics rather than breaking new ground. The thinking here is clear: why spend the time and effort to develop the attack methods of tomorrow when defenders already struggle to stop today's? Fortunately, modern security teams are leveraging AI capabilities of their own—many of which are helping to detect malware, phishing attempts, and other common attack tactics with greater speed and accuracy. As the "AI arms race" between attackers and defenders continues, it will be increasingly important for security teams to understand how adversaries are actually deploying the technology—and ensuring that their own efforts are focused in the right place.

How Attackers Are Leveraging AI

The idea of a semi-autonomous AI being deployed to methodically hack its way through an organization's defenses is a scary one, but (for now) it remains firmly in the realm of William Gibson novels and other science fiction fare. It's true that AI has advanced at an incredible rate over the past several years, but we're still a long way off from the sort of artificial general intelligence (AGI) capable of perfectly mimicking human thought patterns and behaviors. That's not to say today's AI isn't impressive—it certainly is. But generative AI tools and large language models (LLMs) are most effective at synthesizing information from existing material and generating small, iterative changes. It can't create something entirely new on its own—but make no mistake, the ability to synthesize and iterate is incredibly useful.

In practice, this means that instead of developing new methods of attack, adversaries can instead uplevel their current ones. Using AI, an attacker might be able to send millions of phishing emails, instead of thousands. They can also use an LLM to craft a more convincing message, tricking more recipients into clicking a malicious link or downloading a malware-laden file. Tactics like phishing are effectively a numbers game: the vast majority of people won't fall for a phishing email, but if millions of people receive it, even a 1% success rate can result in thousands of new victims. If LLMs can bump that 1% success rate up to 2% or more, scammers can effectively double the effectiveness of their attacks with little to no effort. The same goes for malware: if small tweaks to malware code can effectively camouflage it from detection tools, attackers can get far more mileage out of an individual malware program before they need to move on to something new.

The other element at play here is speed. Because AI-based attacks are not subject to human limitations, they can often conduct an entire attack sequence at a much faster rate than a human operator. That means an attacker could potentially break into a network and reach the victim's crown jewels—their most sensitive or valuable data—before the security team even receives an alert, let alone responds to it. If attackers can move faster, they don't need to be as careful—which means they can get away with noisier, more disruptive activities without being stopped. They aren't necessarily doing anything new here, but by pushing forward with their attacks more quickly, they can outpace network defenses in a potentially game-changing way.

This is the key to understanding how attackers are leveraging AI. Social engineering scams and malware programs are already successful attack vectors—but now adversaries can make them even more effective, deploy them more quickly, and operate at an even greater scale. Rather than fighting off dozens of attempts per day, organizations might be fighting off hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of fast-paced attacks. And if they don't have solutions or processes in place to quickly detect those attacks, identify which represent real, tangible threats, and effectively remediate them, they are leaving themselves dangerously open to attackers. Instead of wondering how attackers might leverage AI in the future, organizations should leverage AI solutions of their own with the goal of handling existing attack methods at a greater scale.

Turning AI to Security Teams' Advantage

Security experts at every level of both business and government are seeking out ways to leverage AI for defensive purposes. In August, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced the finalists for its recent AI Cyber Challenge (AIxCC), which awards prizes to security research teams working to train LLMs to identify and fix code-based vulnerabilities. The challenge is supported by major AI providers, including Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI, all of whom provide technological and financial support for these efforts to bolster AI-based security. Of course, DARPA is just one example—you can hardly shake a stick in Silicon Valley without hitting a dozen startup founders eager to tell you about their advanced new AI-based security solutions. Suffice it to say, finding new ways to leverage AI for defensive purposes is a high priority for organizations of all types and sizes.

But like attackers, security teams often find the most success when they use AI to amplify their existing capabilities. With attacks happening at an ever-increasing scale, security teams are often stretched thin—both in terms of time and resources—making it difficult to adequately identify, investigate, and remediate every security alert that pops up. There simply isn't the time. AI solutions are playing an important role in alleviating that challenge by providing automated detection and response capabilities. If there's one thing AI is good at, it's identifying patterns—and that means AI tools are very good at recognizing abnormal behavior, especially if that behavior conforms to known attack patterns. Because AI can review vast amounts of data much more quickly than humans, this allows security teams to upscale their operations in a significant way. In many cases, these solutions can even automate basic remediation processes, controverting low-level attacks without the need for human intervention. They can also be used to automate the process of security validation, continuous poking and prodding around network defenses to ensure they are functioning as intended.

It's also important to note that AI doesn't just allow security teams to identify potential attack activity more quickly—it also dramatically improves their accuracy. Instead of chasing down false alarms, security teams can be confident that when an AI solution alerts them to a potential attack, it is worthy of their immediate attention. This is an element of AI that doesn't get talked about nearly enough—while much of the discussion centers around AI "replacing" humans and taking their jobs, the reality is that AI solutions are enabling humans to do their jobs better and more efficiently, while also alleviating the burnout that comes with performing tedious and repetitive tasks. Far from having a negative impact on human operators, AI solutions are handling much of the perceived "busywork" associated with security positions, allowing humans to focus on more interesting and important tasks. At a time when burnout is at an all-time high and many businesses are struggling to attract new security talent, improving quality of life and job satisfaction can have a massive positive impact.

Therein lies the real advantage for security teams. Not only can AI solutions help them scale their operations to effectively combat attackers leveraging AI tools of their own—they can keep security professionals happier and more satisfied in their roles. That's a rare win-win solution for everyone involved, and it should help today's businesses recognize that the time to invest in AI-based security solutions is now.

The AI Arms Race Is Just Getting Started

The race to adopt AI solutions is on, with both attackers and defenders finding different ways to leverage the technology to their advantage. As attackers use AI to increase the speed, scale and complexity of their attacks, security teams will need to fight fire with fire, using AI tools of their own to improve the speed and accuracy of their detection and remediation capabilities. Fortunately, AI solutions are providing critical information to security teams, allowing them to better test and evaluate the efficacy of their own solutions while also freeing up time and resources for more mission-critical tasks. Make no mistake, the AI arms race is only getting started—but the fact that security professionals are already using AI to stay one step ahead of attackers is a very good sign.

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