20 MINUTES INTO THE FUTURE: More Apple Intelligence Features Like ChatGPT Drop With the iOS 18.2 Developer Beta.

Apple’s push for generative AI, under the none-too-subtle name of Apple Intelligence, took another step forward with the developer beta software releases for iOS 18.2, iPadOS 18.2 and MacOS Sequoia 15.2. The drop includes even more Apple Intelligence features like GenMoji, Image Playground and the ChatGPT integration for Siri.

This release follows the latest iOS 18.1 public beta, which includes a handful of Apple Intelligence features like AI-suggested writing tools that pop up in documents or emails, photo tools including Clean Up to remove unwanted parts of an image, and a number of Siri changes. The most conspicuous changes to Siri include a new voice designed to sound more natural, the ability to understand the context of conversations, a new glowing border around the display when Siri is running, and a new double-tap gesture on the bottom of the screen to type to Siri.

Those early Apple Intelligence tools are expected to drop next week with the public release for iOS 18.1. Rumors from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman point to Apple releasing some Apple Intelligence features on Oct. 28. The iOS 18.2 developer beta has even more features includes visual intelligence for the iPhone 16 and 16 Pro which uses the new Camera Control button to trigger a search of whatever the camera is pointed at — similar to Google Lens.

I know that Apple is taking a slow and somewhat cautious approach to integrating AI into their products, and I’m looking forward to seeing how it shapes up. Right now, AI seems like it’s where the Apple II and TRS-80 were in the late ’70s and early ’80s: the potential is certainly there, but the road forward to reach it may be quite long. I installed IOS 18.1 on my iPhone and iPad recently; right now, this cartoon neatly summarizes what it initially seems to add to those devices: