iPhone 16 chipsets could get a big upgrade for on-board generative AI features

The iPhone 15 series has been around for a while now. And this is the time when we start seeing several rumours floating around Apple’s upcoming smartphones, likely to be dubbed the iPhone 16 series.

Just last week, a Korean leakster posted several specs rumoured to be that of the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max. Along with them, they also mentioned that the iPhone 16 series may be the first iPhones to get generative AI capabilities on board.

Now, an Economic Daily News report reiterates that Apple’s M4 and A18 processors, which are expected to power the iPhone 16 series, will get an increased number of AI computing cores in the Neural Engine, to power AI-related tasks on the chipset.

Upgrades expected on the iPhone 16 series' on-board neural engine

Interestingly, Apple has included a neural engine on board its chipsets since 2017, used primarily for on-board machine learning tasks. Now, however, the company is expected to bump up the number of cores on the engine on both, its upcoming A18 chipset and the M4 processor for MacBooks. This is expected to power the generative AI features which CEO Tim Cook recently said, are coming to Apple’s devices later this year.

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These generative AI features, going by the ones available on several smartphones this year, including the Samsung Galaxy S24 and the OnePlus 12, could include features such as prompt-based text and image generation, AI-enabled photo and video editing, document summarisation, audio erasing, real-time call transcriptions and translations, a new, improved Siri, and more.

These features will likely make their way to iPhones with iOS 18, which, similar to last year with iOS 17, is expected to be unveiled at Apple’s Worldwide Developers’ Conference (WWDC) this year.

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Now, all of this at least for now, is speculation. However, it only makes sense that Apple makes the above-mentioned upgrades to its chipsets for future upgrades, even if on-board generative AI doesn’t come in as soon as the iPhone 16 series.

However, if the devices do indeed get a bump in the number of cores for generative AI features, it also raises the question of whether older iPhone models will receive those features with iOS 18, owing to hardware limitations.