Apple Intelligence might be 2 years behind ChatGPT, but I’m willing to wait

Apple Intelligence is the main reason to buy the iPhone 16 right now. That’s what Apple is using to advertise its new smartphone lineup, despite the fact that Apple Intelligence isn’t even officially available on the iPhone . You can get it if you sign up for the iOS 18.1 beta, sure. But even then, it’s not the complete experience that Apple demoed at WWDC in June.

It gets even worse if you’re a longtime iPhone user in Europe like me. We won’t get Apple AI on the iPhone and iPad anytime soon. Apple Intelligence will initially only be available on the Mac in the region, and there’s no telling how long we’ll have to wait to get It on the iPhone.

Add to that a new report on Apple’s Apple Intelligence development that says the company internally thinks it’s two years behind rivals like ChatGPT and Google, and the picture gets even more dreary. However, I’m willing to wait for Apple Intelligence, even if that means getting the personal Siri AI assistant I want won’t be ready until iOS 19, iOS 20, or even later than that.

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The tidbit about Apple’s current development progress with Apple Intelligence comes from a new Power On newsletter penned by Apple reporter Mark Gurman. He says that internal studies performed by Apple itself show that the company is “far behind” the likes of OpenAI, Google, and Meta.

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Apple’s data shows that ChatGPT is 25% more accurate than Apple’s Siri when answering questions. It can also answer 30% more questions.

That’s not exactly a surprise. We knew Apple’s own genAI chatbot wasn’t ready to match ChatGPT. As a reminder, ChatGPT will be integrated into iOS 18 once Apple Intelligence starts rolling out. Apple said at WWDC that it’s talking to other companies for similar integration.

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However, Gurman’s report is the first to offer some sort of performance comparison between Apple’s genAI products and rivals like ChatGPT and Gemini.

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Apple Intelligence features on the iPhone 16 phones. Image source: Apple Inc.

The Bloomberg reporter also said that some at Apple believe the company’s generative AI technology is “more than two years behind the industry leaders.” That’s also not surprising. But, again, it’s the first unofficial estimate we get.

Gurman rightly points out that Apple has big advantages over competitors. It knows a thing or two about coming from behind, as evidenced by Apple Maps.

Gurman says that Apple will “either develop, hire or acquire its way into the top tier of AI companies,” which makes perfect sense. Apple has the resources needed to make that happen.

Also, the reporter points out Apple’s big advantage over OpenAI, Google, and others. Its growing ecosystem of devices will be ready to get more advanced Apple Intelligence features down the road:

When Apple becomes a true player in AI, Google and Samsung Electronics Co. will be hard-pressed to roll out new features and upgrades at the same speed. They have more fragmented operating systems, and their hardware, software, and services aren’t as tightly integrated.

OpenAI doesn’t even have a piece of dedicated ChatGPT hardware, though former Apple design guru Jony Ive is making one.

That is enough for me to be confident in the future of Apple Intelligence. I said before that I’m ready to wait for Apple to get AI right for one big reason: data privacy. I want a personal AI assistant that knows everything about me but doesn’t share any of that data with Apple’s cloud.

Also, I want that data to be secure so that Siri AI version can control devices and apps for me. Eventually, I’ll be able to shop online and make reservations using voice with Siri, and the AI will also handle payments.

Finally, I want Apple Intelligence to work on all my Apple devices. Apple’s ecosystem strength will play a huge role in that.

Apple Intelligence might be two years behind ChatGPT, but I don’t expect Apple to need as long to catch up to OpenAI and Google. Until then, I’ll happily use ChatGPT as my go-to AI, even if it’ll take a while until I can run Apple Intelligence on my iPhone.

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