Apple will make its artificial intelligence models available to developers to use in their apps, reports Bloomberg. The company plans to introduce a new software development kit (SDK) in iOS 19 that will make it easier for app creators to add AI features.
The SDK will feature the same large language models that Apple is using for Apple Intelligence features like notification summaries, Writing Tools, Genmoji, and Image Playground, but Apple will first focus on the smaller models that are able to run on-device.
Apple has faced criticism for its failure to deliver Apple Intelligence Siri features in a timely manner. Apple announced a new personalized Siri experience at WWDC 2024 and intended to release the new capabilities as part of iOS 18, but the functionality was not ready in time and is now being held until iOS 19.
Some of Apple's other features, like Writing Tools and Image Playground, haven't seen widespread adoption. According to Bloomberg, Apple is hoping that opening up its AI models to developers will provide use cases that better attract consumers. Currently, developers can integrate notification summaries, Writing Tools, Genmoji, and Image Playground into their apps, but they aren't able to create new AI features using Apple's framework. Instead, developers who want to include AI integrate third-party models, which Apple is aiming to change.
Apple's AI announcements will come at the Worldwide Developers Conference, which is set to take place on Monday, June 9.
Apple has also been working on in-house large language models (LLMs), and eventually the company plans to introduce a version of Siri that relies on LLMs and is more like ChatGPT, Claude, and other chatbots. The LLM version of Siri isn't expected until 2026 at the earliest, and it will likely be part of iOS 20.
