CINCINNATI — Apple has rolled out artificial intelligence on the phone, with features across text, email and photo apps.
Users can get the new features by running a software update.
Compatible devices:
iPhones: iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, iPhone 16 Pro Max, iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max
iPads: iPad Pro M1 and later, iPad Air M1 and later and the new iPad Mini
Macs: MacBooks, iMacs and Mac Studios with M1, M2 or M3 chips
The update improves Siri, smart replies, priority notifications and more. The Apple AI features include new writing tools like rewriting, proofreading and summarizing texts.
“When you get that email and you have the joke of too long didn't read, you could say, give me a summary, and get yourself a summary of that text or of that email,” said Sara Drabik, professor of media and journalism at Northern Kentucky University. “They've got the cleanup feature for your photos.”
You can remove unwanted objects or people from an image.
How to get Apple AI features on your device
- Update your device to ios18.1
- Go to settings and select Apple Intelligence and Siri
- Click "Join the Apple Intelligence wait list"
According to Apple, it usually only takes a few hours on the waitlist before the features are available to activate, but wait times can vary.
Utilizing AI in the classroom
We talked with professors at NKU who say this is the technology of the future.
“Our life is going to change significantly as we interact more with AI and as AI supports our communication and our everyday tasks,” said Nicholas Caporusso, associate professor of computer analytics.
Some people have expressed privacy concerns, as the new features can access so much data on your phone, however, Drabik said Apple has made clear efforts to protect users’ privacy.
“They're using their own private servers, their own private computing cloud,” she said. “They actually have end to end encryption on it, and it appears it will be a little more secure."
There's also some concern with plagiarism and cheating.
“Students can go to AI and say, 'Give me a paper' or 'Give me an essay on this,'” Drabik said. “Students have always been finding ways to cheat, right? And there's always been ways that we try to keep them from cheating."
Caporusso said AI has been a helpful tool, especially for upper-level courses, but he said it should be used more cautiously with lower-level courses.
“The conversation should be more about whether you know that's preventing students from learning because there's still some growth that needs to happen there,” Caporusso said.
Drabik said at NKU they're also working to embrace the positives of AI and ways it can elevate learning.
“We're really integrating AI here, at least at NKU and the College of Informatics, where we say it's a tool,” she said. “You need to learn how to use this tool effectively, and it can save you a lot of time on certain aspects of your work.”
Drabik teaches documentary film production and has found AI to be beneficial for quickly transcribing interviews.
"You used to have to, like, listen and type it out back in the day. Now, you pop that in there, it transcribes it for you, but what the students have learned is that it's never 100% correct," said Drabik. "You still have to do the work to go back in and read it, analyze it, correct it, all of those things, but it saved them a lot of time that they can now focus on the more creative aspect that they used to have to spend on just transcribing."
"Don't Waste Your Money" is a registered trademark of Scripps Media, Inc. ("Scripps").
Follow John:
- Facebook:John Matarese Money
- Instagram: @johnmataresemoney
- X/Twitter: @JohnMatarese
Follow Taylor:
- Facebook: Taylor Nimmo
- Instagram:@tnimms
- X/Twitter: @tnimms
For more consumer news and money saving advice, go to www.dontwasteyourmoney.com
