SKY Eye

Does AI freak you out? If it doesn't, does a little part of you wonder … shouldn't it? Is AI going to replace you at your job? Will it enable state-run misinformation campaigns? Will artificial general intelligence instigate some World War III scenario that leads to the destruction of the human race, like some AI doomers think? Will it tell you to eat glue?

Don't worry — Apple is here to smooth over your fears about big bad AI, give you a cup of warm milk, tuck you into your cozy bed, and stroke your hair until you fall asleep. At the keynote presentation for its yearly developer conference on Monday, Apple finally unveiled its AI intentions.

Unlike Google's recent event which showed off futurist things like AI search results (which ended up an embarrassment) or OpenAI's keynote in May  whom caused a scandal over the similarity of the company's voice assistant to Scarlett Johansson's voice, and in which the abilities of its technology seemed uncanny and freaky  Apple's demonstration was familiar and seemed practical, like something you could actually use.

(One couldn't help notice Apple actually had the real Scarlett Johansson in its keynote  in clips for "Fly Me to the Moon," her upcoming Apple TV+ movie.)

And in Apple's new AI world, we start with one rule: Don't call it "artificial intelligence." It's "Apple Intelligence."

What's the difference, you ask? Haha! Don't worry about the details or Apple's deal with OpenAI! Just focus on the nice, pleasing things it can do.

Apple Intelligence can perform simple and useful functions. One demo involved someone needing to pick up her mom from the airport. Siri can pull up flight details from an email, pull up tracking, and find lunch reservation details that were messaged in a text. Helpful! Not intimidating!