The Evolution of Apple Intelligence

At the recent Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple unveiled a major leap in its artificial intelligence strategy. Central to these announcements was the introduction of Apple Intelligence, a suite of capabilities highlighted by a completely revamped Siri assistant, updates to MacOS, and new photography tools.

«We believe that truly helpful AI must be centered around you and your needs,» noted Craig Federighi, Apple's senior vice president of software engineering, during the event.


The Five New Foundation Models

Apple has introduced a series of AI models developed in collaboration with Google. These models serve as the technological foundation for new features, rather than consumer-facing chatbots. The lineup includes:

  • AFM 3 Core: A 3-billion parameter model optimized to operate directly on iPhone and Mac hardware.
  • AFM 3 Core Advanced: A 20-billion parameter multimodal model, positioned as Apple’s most powerful on-device solution.
  • AFM 3 Cloud: A version of the model designed to function via cloud servers.
  • AFM 3 Cloud (Image): Specialized in image processing, supporting the latest photo editing tools and Image Playground features.
  • AFM 3 Cloud Pro: The most advanced cloud-based offering, tailored for complex reasoning and agentic workflows.

Privacy and Infrastructure

A core pillar of Apple's strategy is privacy. The company emphasized that its private cloud compute infrastructure ensures that user data and interaction logs are not stored. Even when utilizing the AFM 3 Cloud Pro model—which runs on Google Cloud using Nvidia GPUs—Apple maintains these strict data privacy guarantees. Furthermore, the company clarified that it trains its models using public and licensed data, explicitly avoiding the use of private user interactions for training purposes.


A Shift Toward Invisible Integration

Apple’s approach differs from many of its competitors by focusing heavily on on-device processing. Rather than forcing AI into the spotlight, the company aims to embed it seamlessly into the user experience. By granting Siri deeper access to contextual information and enabling better language understanding, Apple is positioning its assistant to be more functional without feeling like a radical departure from traditional usage.

According to Francisco Jeronimo, vice president of client devices at IDC, Apple's strategy is to make AI feel both natural and private. «The impact could be significant,» Jeronimo stated. «If Apple makes AI feel natural, private and useful for mainstream users, it will not just strengthen its ecosystem. It could redefine what consumers expect from every device they use.»