iOS 18.2 developer beta adds ChatGPT and image-generation features

AI image-generation features headline Apple's upcoming software update.

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[melgross]

If I’m not mistaken it could be confusion around the fact that sometimes Apple refers to iOS 18 without specifying which point release, so when they say something like “coming to iOS 18” some people assume “18.0” instead of “18.X”.

I think we understand that Apple and Google release features during the year after release. So unless Apple says that it’s coming with the release of the OS, rather than coming TO the OS, we should know it will be there when it’s ready.

at any rate, when Apple released the first developer version of 18 back in June, they said that the A.I. wouldn’t be available in the beginning, but would begin to come in during the fall and finish sometime during 2025. They really were very clear in that.

 

[mrsilver]

I wonder how much the urgency to make good on all of these AI features is impacting the bug-fix schedule

I have a fairly conservative approach to installing major iOS updates - where I wait until the latest version has been out for 3 weeks before I install it. The theory being that once a release has been out that long, Apple has found no issues urgent enough to patch - so the release should be pretty solid.

iOS 18.0 was the latest for 18 days, the 18.0.1 release hit the 21 day mark today.

This is somewhat unusual - given that iOS 17, 16, 15 and 14 have had multiple releases over several months before one of those releases met my criteria.

 

[paw]

It's a little confusing due to conflating terms, but I'm talking about the image/GIF search, which I think is listed as "#images". At least on my phone, it's near the top of the second page of options.


...

you can just tap-and-hold on the #images name and move it to the top of your list! (In ios18)

 

[artvandelayIIII]

The irony is that I kinda want the opposite. Summarize the notifications and the emails, but let me do the stuff like booking flights because I'm picky about where I route through, how long my layovers are, etc.

Totally agree, and I should've been clearer: in that hypothetical "book a flight for me" scenario I would absolutely want final say on the actual details.

 

[antibolo]

Apple's big push for AI is what might actually get me off the Apple ecosystem.

 

[kaibelf]

Genmoji and Image Playground are probably the two things that I'm looking forward to the most. Are they necessary? Absolutely not, but I'm sure I'll have fun generating random images to send to people. Sometimes, a GIF that you can find just doesn't fit what you want.

Also, I need to look into how to reorganize the list of options from the insert menu in Messages. Every time I try to insert an image, it's awkward that I have to go to the second page when it's probably my third most used one behind camera and photos.

To adjust the menu you just hold down the one you want and drag it to a different spot. I had to rearrange mine a while ago.

 

[FSTargetDrone]

You know what I’d like in 18.2? To have the Bluetooth randomly disconnecting from my AirPods and the dictation getting stuck “listening” until I reboot my phone both fixed.

 

[FSTargetDrone]

Apple's big push for AI is what might actually get me off the Apple ecosystem.

Don’t use it? I don’t plant to use it but it’s not getting me to stop using iPhones either way.

 

[OrangeCream]

Exactly. I am really only interested in automating useless drudgery out of my life. As a software developer I find the current batch of LLMs to be interesting technoloy, but the main use of those that I am interested in is using them in an Agent role where they mainly serve as a user-interface to other services that is easier to interact with as a human.

When it comes to creative-intelligence sources I prefer meat-space.

One person’s creative-intelligence is another person’s drudgery.

As described earlier, travel agents are a creative-intelligence role insofar as creating itineraries out of component parts.

Having to DIY via airline, hotel, and car rental websites is drudgery.

The same can be said of cooking. A chef will invent and improve and turn the act into an art.

A cook working at a diner is doing it as a job and is considered as drudgery.

 

[OrangeCream]

Apple's big push for AI is what might actually get me off the Apple ecosystem.

Why? If it’s useless you ignore it. If it’s useful then you should obviously use it.

Leaving the ecosystem because you don’t know how useful it is before you use it seems dumb.

 

[antibolo]

Why? If it’s useless you ignore it. If it’s useful then you should obviously use it.

Leaving the ecosystem because you don’t know how useful it is before you use it seems dumb.

It's a matter of principle. Fuck AI.

 

[OrangeCream]

It's a matter of principle. Fuck AI.

Yeah, seriously dumb. You sound ill informed.

Let’s put it this way: if AI turns out to be useful and amazing then everyone will have it. Then the question becomes which platform do you think will have the better implementation?

If we look at Siri we see Amazon and Microsoft throw tons of money at the problem, burn all their runway, then close shop, leaving Siri as last man standing. If AI is anything similar I can see the same thing happening. So if you switch to Android you’ll get Google pushing AI super hard, and far more intrusively, in order to get user eyeballs.

If it turns out to be less useful or not a moneymaker then you’ll be forced to suffer through Android until it the fever recedes.

And Apple’s implementation will be unobtrusive, optional, and hidden in the background. If it turns out to be useful then great, and if it doesn’t, Apple will just retire it the same way they retired 3D Touch.

 

[Castellum Excors]

All the generative crap just leaves me cold. I would prefer to write and read for myself rather than turn it into yet another skill I outsource to a machine and ultimately degrade my ability to do myself (see also: navigating without GPS, remembering phone numbers). Things like this are "use it or lose it".

What I DO want AI to do is the rote, dumb shit. Let me tell my device: "find me a flight leaving LGA for Chicago O'Hare on the morning of November 9, returning in the evening of November 13, and find rental cars for that time" and have that actually work.

I'm sure you're out there building a log cabin by hand, eh, Paul Bunyan?

 

[R0ckyRacc00n]

Do. Not. Want.

 

[williamlondon]

Do. Not. Want.

Do. Not. Care.

 

[OrangeCream]

Do. Not. Want.

If you stick to a cheap $50 Android Phone you can skip all the NPU powered SW (for now)

 

[artvandelayIIII]

I'm sure you're out there building a log cabin by hand, eh, Paul Bunyan?

All for using tools, but I don't want to outsource the shit that's integral to my brain working the way I like. But thanks for asking!

 

[OrangeCream]

All for using tools, but I don't want to outsource the shit that's integral to my brain working the way I like. But thanks for asking!

But that’s all a tool is. It makes things easier. It doesn’t change you, you aren’t outsourcing anything.

Imagine trying to draft a novel using pen and paper. How much more work is it than using SW, today?

But the raw creative work is the same.

 

[artvandelayIIII]

But that’s all a tool is. It makes things easier. It doesn’t change you, you aren’t outsourcing anything.

You're losing a skill of some kind. Sometimes it's well worth the trade off. Nobody knows how to hand wash clothing anymore because we mostly don't have to -- thank god.

Funny you should mention typing versus longhand. Some people swear by longhand, and there are plenty of studies that confirm people absorb more when they write notes by hand. Still, I type a lot more myself and have very much lost the ability to write legibly at any kind of speed whatsoever. Most people have lost this ability if they ever had it. Maybe it's a decent trade off?

But the raw creative work is the same.

Not with AI, and that's what we're talking about here. You tell an LLM to "write a short story" and no matter how clever your prompting is, you've not done the work and you've not written. And if you KEEP lazily dashing off instructions to "email Jeff and Laura thanks for dinner the other night" or whatever such shit, you will over time lose the ability to string words together fluently enough to write a thank-you note because, yes, you've outsourced that to a robot.

 

[connorshea]

and the further irony is that both your requirements and those of @artvandelayIIII you were responding to were easily accomodated in the 1960s and 1970s by human travel agents. yes, that cost money (and created jobs...), but if you had a good travel agent, booking things was MUCH more efficient than the present day self-serve system.

But you can still use a travel agent! They still exist. But most people don't want to spend the money or trust their travel to someone else ¯\(ツ)/¯