Move Slow and Make Sure Everything Works

If you squint, you can see it. But you really need to squint. Apple Intelligence is here. In the smallest way possible.

Apple was always going to take it slow with their AI roll out. They're pretty slow, relatively speaking, when it comes to most roll-outs. This undoubtedly stems from the "ship when it's ready" mentality. But the world doesn't really work that way anymore, and certainly not the web. And now, certainly, certainly not AI. With seemingly every other company not named Apple, we're getting some new AI roll-out a month, if not more often. It's an absolute arms race.

Of course Apple entered the race by choosing a different path. The path of products versus performance. This is also not exactly new territory for Apple. For years and years while other PC manufacturers touted specs, Apple touted actual functionality. Yes, it was self-serving back in the day, as they couldn't really compete on specs (now they can, and so, surprise, they often tout specs), and again, this is similar as they can't really compete on the absolute bleeding edge of the technology stack in AI. So they're choosing not to. And that's probably wise as the world is clearly ready for products they'll actually use here, rather than just impressive demos and promised dreams.

And so Apple Intelligence is here in an early beta of Apple's new software. But not the main public beta, the beta only meant for developers. And not even the betas of the software that's shipping next – iOS 18. But the software that's shipping after that – iOS 18.1. And even then, it's only available for US English-speaking users.

In other words, Apple Intelligence is here for not the billions of iOS users. And not even just the millions in the certain geographic region. And not even just the tens of thousands (?) of public beta testers in that region. And not even just the thousands of developer beta testers in that region. But just the developer beta testers in that region who are willing to test an OS that is two updates away. How many users are actually testing this? Maybe a few thousand?

Oh yes, and it only works on the very latest and top-of-the-line Apple devices at the moment. The iPhones 15 Pro, the M-Series iPads and Macs.

Are we down to the hundreds yet?

And even then, the amount of actual AI features in Apple's don't-call-it-AI implementation in these early days with limited testers is maybe a half dozen. They are the absolute table-stakes AI stuff like summarization of text, smart replies, and the like. We don't even have access to AI-generated images yet, let alone 'Genmoji'. New Siri is here in style – and she looks great – but seemingly not in substance. 90%+ of what has been touted is just nowhere to be seen even in this extremely early and humorously limited beta. And much of it won't be seen until next year.

Again, that's all intentional, and for the most part, undoubtedly the right move on Apple's end. These all feel like features that people are going to actually use – even if many of us who are beta testing this stuff have used all of this, and far more, before. It's not for us, it's for everyone. That's what Apple does.

But it's still all fairly humorous given the AI race going on all around Apple. Meta is busy shoving AI into the faces of hundreds of millions – if not billions – of users across a range of products. So is Google, in other ways in other products. Microsoft is trying to, if anyone will use their products outside of the office. And OpenAI is trying like crazy to build up to a user base of such sizes (including, at some point, with the help of Apple!). As is every other startup in the space. So much so that EU regulators appear to actually be working this summer so as not to miss an opportunity to mess this all up.

Oh look over there, it's Apple just casually laying back on a raft, drink in hand, floating down the AI stream. Must be nice.

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