--- title: "Apple’s Huge AI Announcement Is a Chatbot and an Image Generator, Which Is the Exact Same Boring Offering as Microsoft, Google and Meta" description: "Tech giant Apple has finally shown off its own take on artificial intelligence tech. We've seen this all before." date: "2024-06-10" modified: "2024-06-10" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/apple-ai-announcement-new-ideas" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Google" - "Meta" tags: - "apple" - "OpenAI" - "the digest" --- # Apple’s Huge AI Announcement Is a Chatbot and an Image Generator, Which Is the Exact Same Boring Offering as Microsoft, Google and Meta ![Tech giant Apple has finally shown off its own take on artificial intelligence tech. We've seen this all before.]() *\Image: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images/Futurism\* ## Generating a Blank Tech giant Apple has finally shown off its particular take on artificial intelligence tech — and we can't shake the feeling that we've seen this all before. During today's kickoff of the company's Worldwide Developer's Conference, Apple [unveiled]() what it's calling "Apple Intelligence," a set of machine learning features to be integrated across its desktop and mobile platforms. The system's "new" capabilities are a very familiar mishmash of AI stuff we've seen before from other companies, including integrating generative AI into Siri and a surprisingly basic image generator that can create "[Genmojis]()" while chatting. In other words, most of Apple's huge and much-hyped AI play amounts to a chatbot and an image generator — the exact two products we've already seen from Microsoft, Google, Meta, and pretty much any other tech outfit caught up in the AI hype game. Nothing about today's lukewarm announcement is remotely surprising, and Apple is clearly playing it incredibly safe. This palpable lack of imagination could be indicative of a much larger trend, with companies struggling to come up with fresh new ideas for AI tech even as they pour untold billions into developing them. How many more companies will announce their own takes on AI chatbots and AI-generated clip art? Whatever happened to AI revolutionizing the world? ## Deja Vu Virtually everything Apple showed off today during the "Apple Intelligence" portion of its announcement already exists in one form or another, from automatic email replies to tools designed to improve your writing skills. "It's wild how much everyone has the same vision for AI — we've seen so much of this from Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, and others, too," *The Verge*'s David Pierce [noted](). "This is the industry's plan." Apple is characteristically putting data privacy front and center, [claiming on its website]() that it's "setting a new standard for privacy in AI" by having its models "run entirely on device" and have "independent experts" inspect the "code that runs on Apple silicon servers to verify privacy." At the same time, the company also [confirmed rumors of an OpenAI partnership](), announcing that the AI company's [infamously leaky]() ChatGPT is headed to the Apple ecosystem later this year. How exactly OpenAI's cutting-edge AI will interact with the rest of the tech company's consumer-facing software and its own "Apple Intelligence" remains to be seen. In short, Apple isn't reinventing the wheel here. Far from it — it's seemingly catching up to where its competition was months ago. And given its prominent standing and virtually limitless resources at its disposal, that doesn't bode well for the future of AI innovation. **More on Apple:** *[Apple’s New Ad Showing Machines Crushing Human Creativity Is a Bit on the Nose]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()