Author | Huang Yu

Editor | Liu Baodan

Apple officially “married” OpenAI, and Apple Intelligence (Apple Intelligence) has finally found its soul.

December 12 is also the 5th day of the OpenAI Spring Festival Gala at the end of the year. OpenAI said that ChatGPT is fully connected to Apple, including iPhones, iPads, and Macs, and Apple devices that support Apple intelligence can activate the ChatGPT function. On the same day, Apple released system updates for iOS, iPadOS, and macOS.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wrote on the X platform: Now you can use ChatGPT with just one button!

The intelligent voice assistant Siri is the most direct window for Apple users to trigger ChatGPT.

It is reported that Apple users can wake up Siri in almost any app. By double-clicking the command key, you can bring up the Siri prompt box, and when Siri determines that the task is too complicated, the system will ask if ChatGPT's assistance is needed and hand over the problem to ChatGPT.

Some people use “reincarnation” to describe Siri after this update. It is reported that when users ask complex questions, such as planning a travel itinerary or require other technical support, Siri will use the power of ChatGPT to provide more intelligent and detailed answers.

Additionally, Apple has also been given ChatGPT visual intelligence capabilities. When a user takes a photo or selects an image in an album, the camera control function will conduct a preliminary analysis of the image and extract key elements in the image, such as information such as people, objects, and scenes. This information is then passed on to ChatGPT for further understanding and processing.

Apple said that the large model connected this time uses OpenAI's GPT-4O model. In terms of privacy, which has received much attention, Apple has built a privacy protection function into related functions. OpenAI does not store requests made by users, and AI only calls ChatGPT when running on a local device to ensure that the data is fully controlled.

Apple users don't need an OpenAI account to use the integrated ChatGPT, but users can pay for the upgraded version of ChatGPT through Apple. Additionally, users can also access ChatGPT through some text menus.

However, Apple Smart still does not support mainland China, and is mainly open to users in specific English-speaking regions.

According to the plan previously announced by Apple, the English version of Apple Smart landed in the US market in October of this year, and was gradually expanded to countries and regions such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United Kingdom starting in December. Next year, Apple Intelligence will be updated in other languages such as Chinese, French, Japanese, and Spanish.

The news that Apple will cooperate with OpenAI was revealed at the Apple Developers Conference (WWDC) conference in June of this year. Apple, which was making slow progress on the AI model at the time, announced plans to deeply integrate ChatGPT into the Apple product matrix.

The market also expects Apple to redefine end-side AI user behavior and drive a wave of hardware switching.

In October, Apple officially released the first wave of Apple Intelligence features, but features such as writing tools, newly designed Siri (horse racing light effect), and notification summaries didn't surprise the outside world.

For Apple, the integration of ChatGPT is undoubtedly a landmark event, marking a critical step in AI terminals and truly implementing the selling point of the iPhone 16 series.

Many investors pointed out that as Apple Intelligence continues to add new features, it will increase iPhone sales, drive the upgrade cycle, and may consolidate Apple's leading position in the field of artificial intelligence for consumers.

2024 is the “first year of AI phones”, and no one dares to miss this round of competition. On this track, Samsung launched the first AI phone. Huawei, OPPO, Honor, vivo, etc. continue to work hard, and Apple, which is long overdue, has now officially joined this track.

There is a general consensus that generative AI will have a revolutionary impact on the smartphone market, and AI phones are expected to quickly penetrate the mobile phone market.

According to statistics from CCD consultants, the world's shipments of new AI phones will be about 50 million units in 2023, and shipments of AI phones are expected to reach 0.15 billion units by 2024, accounting for 13% of the total global smartphone shipments. By 2027, AI phones are expected to account for more than 50% of global sales.

However, there are no real winners on the AI mobile phone circuit. Whether Apple can continue to stabilize its position as king in the global market is still full of unknowns.