Has the iPhone 16's secret weapon been revealed already ?

Apples next iPhone is set to be revolutionary, and it is thanks to this major AI feature upgrade.

Apple has been focused lately on the recent release of the Apple Vision Pro, a revolutionary piece of technology that will surely progress the virtual reality how we interact with digital technologies. Nonetheless, Apple has been working hard on the upcoming iPhone 16 and the advanced technologies that will power it. As such, Apple has already confirmed that it is working on generative artificial intelligence. Tim Cook has alluded towards a significant announcement later this year, probably at WWDC 2024. 

There are rumours circulating that Apple is currently testing an equivalent of the ChatGPT large language model that will enhance Siri. Alongside this software development that would already change how users interact with their devices, Apple is also preparing a hardware improvement. This will come in the form of generative AI. AI is quickly changing the tech landscape, and generative AI is one of the main focuses. This AI is capable of generating text, images or other data from prompts that the user give it. 

Each year Apple introduces a new processor in its iPhone range. This year, in addition to boosting CPU and GPU power, it looks like Apple will seek to improve the NPU (Neural Processing Unit) that handles AI related tasks, as was reported by MacRumors. The NPU in the upcoming Apple Chips, with the A18 (iPhone) and M4 (Macs) could have a high number of cores compared to previous versions. This will make future iPhones and Macs more capable in terms of AI functionality. 

Could these features be reserved exclusively for the iPhone 16? If the iPhone 16 does receive an NPU upgrade, then it is likely that previous models will struggle to implement the same AI technologies as efficiently as the latest iPhone. It is possible that Apple uses this as a unique selling point to encourage users to upgrade their current iPhone's to the latest models. 

Apple is expected to unveil iOS 18 in June during the annual WWDC conference, where it is expected to showcase AI-based innovations. This will include an improved version of Siri. Apple is not alone in this, with Google currently integrating Gemini AI into their products, including Android devices. The Samsung Galaxy S24 has already been equipped with some AI features, and for processors, Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, which will be put into the next generation of Android devices, already has an AI component, that can process models with 10 billion parameters.