Apple announced a host of new software features for its popular devices and the new Apple Vision Pro headset, many of them leveraging AI.
Apple announced a host of new software features for its popular devices — computers, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Apple TV, AirPods and the new Apple Vision Pro headset — at its worldwide developer conference WWDC 2023 on Monday. As expected from pre-event reports and rumors, many of the new features from the technology giant used artificial intelligence (AI), or “machine learning,” (ML) as Apple presenters were careful to say.
In keeping with Apple’s previously stated commitments to user privacy and security, these new AI features largely appear to avoid connecting and transferring user data to the cloud, and instead rely upon-device processing power — what Apple calls its “neural engine.”
Here’s a look at some of the most exciting features coming to Apple devices powered by AI. Persona for Vision Pro
The star of Apple’s event, as has often been in the company’s history, was the “one more thing” unveiled at the end: Apple Vision Pro. The new augmented reality headset resembles chunky ski goggles that the user wears over their eyes, allowing them to see graphics overlaid on their view of the real world.
Not due until early 2024, and at a startling starting cost of $3,499, the new headset that Apple calls its first “spatial computing” device, contains a long list of impressive features. These include support for many of Apple’s existing mobile apps, and even allows Mac computer interfaces to be moved into floating digital windows in mid-air.
One major innovation that Apple showed off on the Vision Pro depends heavily on ML known as Persona. This feature uses built-in cameras to scan a user’s face to quickly create a lifelike, interactive digital doppelganger. This way, when a user dons the device and joins a FaceTime call or other video conference, a digital twin appears in place of them in the clunky helmet, mapping their expressions and gestures in real time.
Apple said Persona is a “a digital representation” of the wearer “created using Apple’s most advanced ML techniques.” A better “ducking” autocorrect
As iPhone users know well, Apple’s current built-in autocorrect features for texting and typing can sometimes be wrong and unhelpful, suggesting words that are not anywhere close to what the user intended (“ducking” instead of…another word that rhymes but begins with “f”).
