iPhone 16 series may sport faster on-device AI, but you’ll still need ChatGPT

AI on smartphones is all the rage right now, as you probably saw with the Galaxy AI suite on Samsung’s Galaxy S24 series phones. The next brand expected to bring some new AI features to its flagships is Apple, expected to launch its new iPhones later this year. However, as per a new report, the AI approach on the iPhone 16 series will be a little different.

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has hinted at the fact that Apple is developing an LLM (Large Language Model) that will function entirely on-device. This would mean faster generative-AI features, but also at the cost of these features being less powerful compared to tools like ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot. Here’s how that is.

What is on-device AI?

Before we go any further, let’s have a quick look at what on-device artificial intelligence actually means. Most phones and laptops can run AI tools like ChatGPT today, but devices that support on-device AI are capable of using an AI model completely offline, using the phones chipset itself, and not relying on internet connectivity.

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Unlike conventional means where a phone/laptop will actually connect to an online server every time you ask ChatGPT a question or modify your prompt in Midjourney, on-device AI will allow most of these use-cases to be processed straight from the device, completely offline.

This is similar to a phone navigating using offline Google Maps data, vs one relying on real-time internet-powered information.

What iPhone 16’s on-device AI means for users

With the iPhone 16 series being capable of on-device AI, whatever generative-AI features Apple has in store for users will be able to work offline. This means things like generative image editing or text creation from prompts should be much faster, and should also work when the iPhone is not connected to a network.

However, on-device AI also comes with some drawbacks. Not being connected to the web means no real-time, updated information. As a result, any on-device AI implementation will also not be as powerful as tools like ChatGPT which use a much larger LLM over the web, enabling more advanced commands and more versatility.

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This means if you love the text generation features of ChatGPT, or the image creating abilities Copilot, you could very well still be using these apps on the iPhone 16 despite the presence of on-device AI implementations. However, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. That’s because while these apps are more powerful in dedicated use-cases, Apple’s AI features could be system-wide implementations that work on improving your day-to-day iPhone usage.

Of course, we still don’t have a lot of clarity over what AI features Apple will actually offer with the iPhone 16 series, and with iOS 18, which is expected to be not just an AI-powered revamp, but also one of Apple’s biggest updates in years. More details should be revealed at Apple’s annual developer conference WWDC 2024, which is set to take place from June 10-14 this year. Stay tuned to Unboxed by Croma for more details.