The AI capabilities Apple announced at WWDC24 are nowhere to be seen in the first round of betas for iOS 18, macOS Sequoia and iPadOS 18. This despite the new Apple Intelligence features, like the ability to summarize documents or create new emoji on the fly, are the highlights of the upcoming operating system upgrades.
So those eager to try Apple AI can hold off installing these buggy prerelease versions. It’ll only be a disappointment.
Apple AI has enormous potential
WWDC24 gave the world its first official look at the Mac-maker’s AI efforts, which all come under the heading of Apple Intelligence. The new features make use of Large Language Models that mostly run directly on an iPhone, Mac or iPad. And they are spread across a range of applications.
The Safari web browser uses AI to find key information on webpages, as well as create a summary of it. The new AI-enhanced version of Apple Mail can summarize emails, assign them to categories based on their contents, and draft replies to messages.
System-wide Writing Tools help users rewrite, proofread, and summarize text in a range of applications, including Mail, Notes and Pages, as well as third-party apps.
And a new AI-powered Siri is much more capable of understanding what users want and perform complex everyday tasks.
Apple Intelligence is not in first iOS 18, macOS Sequoia betas
But don’t go looking for those new AI capabilities in the first round of betas. Developers got access to pre-release versions of iOS 18, macOS Sequoia and iPadOS 18 at WWDC24, and there’s no Apple Intelligence to be seen.
The preview pages for these operating system upgrades list the AI-related features as ��Coming in an update later this year.” This is a phrase that Apple has used in the past to indicate the features won’t be included in the initial release of the OS upgrades. Instead, they’ll be part of follow-up releases — perhaps iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, etc.
At this point, it’s not clear when beta testing for Apple Intelligence will begin.
In the mean time, the betas do include other new features. Those brave enough to install the iOS 18 or iPadOS 18 betas can try the new Home Screen personalization options and the more customizable Control Center. Plus, iPad users can test the first official Calculator app, as well as Smart Script.
