By Emmanuel Ogbodo
With iOS 18, Apple introduced visual updates across all compatible iPhones, but the Apple Intelligence feature, enabling on-device generative AI and large language models, is exclusive to the iPhone 15 Pro. This is due to the substantial computational power required, best supported by the A17 Pro chip in these models. The feature is also limited to iPads and Macs with at least an M1 chip.
Apple executives clarified that this restriction is based on hardware capabilities, not a tactic to boost sales. In a recent “The Talk Show” episode at WWDC 2024, Apple’s AI chief John Giannandrea, marketing head Greg Joswiak, and software chief Craig Federighi explained to John Gruber of Daring Fireball that the complex models necessitate the advanced processing power of Apple Silicon.
Joswiak noted that if the intention were to drive sales, they would have restricted the feature to only the latest iPads and Macs. Federighi emphasized that while Apple aims to support new features on older devices, the requirements for Apple Intelligence are strictly hardware-related, highlighting the extraordinary effort to run such complex models on an iPhone.
The A17 Pro chip, with its 16-core Neural Engine, is significantly more powerful than the A16 Bionic chip in standard iPhone 15 models, demonstrating that the limitation is based on technical capability rather than a sales strategy.
