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Itzsteak

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 10, 2024
5
5
I recently got an iPhone 14 and apple announced that the apple intelligence is only for the iPhone 15 pro and pro max. Will I still get the improved Siri? And also, will I have the cool glowy edges?? Idk it’s kinda stupid. You can definitely tell that their doing this for the money…
 

xxFoxtail

macrumors 6502a
Nov 8, 2015
742
1,062
NY
Unfortunately, if they made it all server-side for older iPhones and iPads, that's millions (billions?) of devices all trying to use AI features all the time - most likely resulting in worse performance for everyone. So I can see why a lot of it is limited to on-device usage.

I'm a bit bummed my 14 Pro won't get it, but I'm not going to upgrade at least until the 17 comes out. Hopefully AI will be more refined by then.
 

one more

macrumors 603
Aug 6, 2015
5,146
6,569
Earth
Initially I shared your sentiment, as my iPhone 15 will not support AI either. However, by now I have totally relaxed about this whole AI business, as it is still in its infancy and will take at least a year to be fine-tuned, by which point we will probably be reaching iPhone 17 release. ChatGPT app should work as before and Siri should also improve somewhat. We shall see by how much once iOS 18 launches for all in the autumn. Basically, I am not upgrading my iPhone 15 until at least iPhone 17.

As others have mentioned, the problem with pre-15 Pro iPhones is their sub-8GB RAM limitation, which is the absolute minimum to run any form of AI model on device. So no, it is not just about the money.
 

millar876

macrumors 6502a
May 13, 2004
709
45
Kilmarnock, Scotland UK
It’s a bit strange that it won’t be on the iPhone 14 pro and 15 non pro, especially since it will be available for m1 iPads which should be a slightly weaker NPU than in the A16 bionic, both NPUs are 16 core, but the M1 is on an older less efficient node. Geekbench ML scores for m1 iPad Pro is 2688, A16 Bionic (iPhone 14 pro max) is 3231 both NPU only cores, so I don’t know why M1 iPad Pro/air are getting the feature and not A16 Bionic devices. Even A14 Bionic devices like the iPhone SE (2022) are getting higher NPU ML scores than the M1 at 2772. but what do I know, I’m only a user not a dev. I don’t know what other factors are at play in their decision.
 

Goodeye

macrumors 6502a
Jan 30, 2009
823
381
Unfortunately, if they made it all server-side for older iPhones and iPads, that's millions (billions?) of devices all trying to use AI features all the time - most likely resulting in worse performance for everyone. So I can see why a lot of it is limited to on-device usage.

I'm a bit bummed my 14 Pro won't get it, but I'm not going to upgrade at least until the 17 comes out. Hopefully AI will be more refined by then.

A lot of Android phones do this already. Gemini runs on far inferior chipsets and runs serverside on many an Android device. ChatGPT does this already too.
 

Goodeye

macrumors 6502a
Jan 30, 2009
823
381
It’s a bit strange that it won’t be on the iPhone 14 pro and 15 non pro, especially since it will be available for m1 iPads which should be a slightly weaker NPU than in the A16 bionic, both NPUs are 16 core, but the M1 is on an older less efficient node. Geekbench ML scores for m1 iPad Pro is 2688, A16 Bionic (iPhone 14 pro max) is 3231 both NPU only cores, so I don’t know why M1 iPad Pro/air are getting the feature and not A16 Bionic devices. Even A14 Bionic devices like the iPhone SE (2022) are getting higher NPU ML scores than the M1 at 2772. but what do I know, I’m only a user not a dev. I don’t know what other factors are at play in their decision.

Which is exactly why Apple indicating that you need a better processor is BS. It's all about the money.
 
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Lord of the Pies

macrumors regular
Sep 2, 2016
108
189
South Africa
It’s a bit strange that it won’t be on the iPhone 14 pro and 15 non pro, especially since it will be available for m1 iPads which should be a slightly weaker NPU than in the A16 bionic, both NPUs are 16 core, but the M1 is on an older less efficient node. Geekbench ML scores for m1 iPad Pro is 2688, A16 Bionic (iPhone 14 pro max) is 3231 both NPU only cores, so I don’t know why M1 iPad Pro/air are getting the feature and not A16 Bionic devices. Even A14 Bionic devices like the iPhone SE (2022) are getting higher NPU ML scores than the M1 at 2772. but what do I know, I’m only a user not a dev. I don’t know what other factors are at play in their decision.
It's a memory limitation. I think all 8GB devices can use Apple Intelligence?
 

sevoneone

macrumors 6502a
May 16, 2010
951
1,290
One has to wonder if the RAM requirement will come down with future versions of the Neural engine. I don’t see Apple putting 8GB of memory into the iPhone SE or entry level iPad/iPad mini… Ive been surprised before, but I am thinking maybe the next versions of the NPU will have its own dedicated memory to load and run the models in without consuming other resources.

I don’t think Apple is foolish enough to try and gatekeep AI. To be successful their solution needs to be available to as much of the user base as possible and I don’t think it is enough to convince most to upgrade their device on their own. Which is why I believe the 8GB RAM limit.

What they need to do is some sort or handoff/continuity type feature where if there is a device nearby that supports Apple intelligence that is logged into the same iCloud account/family, nearby unsupported devices can relay through it.

I’ve got an M1Max MacBook, and M1 iPad and an iPhone 14Pro. The iPhone is almost always near one or the other devices and it is not like I’d likely be asking AI to do something on more than one device at a time.

Maybe a macOS system service like Content Caching Server?
 

shenfrey

macrumors 68030
May 23, 2010
2,506
778
Its easy to say that, but the real common denominator is that the 15 Pro series is the only iphone with 8 GB of RAM. Thats a minimum to be able to run all of the AI stuff on device.
And it may not run that well even on 8GB, after all like you said, it's the bare minimum.
 

Aoligei

macrumors 65816
Jul 16, 2020
1,147
1,363
A lot of Android phones do this already. Gemini runs on far inferior chipsets and runs serverside on many an Android device. ChatGPT does this already too.

Lots of Android AI features, such Magic erasers were only available on newest Pixel devices as well. Then gradually expended to all other Android including iPhone.

Google is doing on server side, whereas Apple is doing AI locally.

Whether this is for pushing user to buy new phone or privacy, I feel like locally run AI model will be battery killer and have potential performance impact.
 

winxmac

macrumors 68000
Sep 1, 2021
1,532
1,799
Not too worried - on having no access to Apple Intelligence for iPhone 15 non-Pro and iPhone 14 series and older

They may change this in WWDC 2025 once iOS 19 is announced...

I still don't like the changes made to Photos app and Control Center in iOS 18 but once apps drop support for older iOS versions, I'll be forced to upgrade anyway...
 

Goodeye

macrumors 6502a
Jan 30, 2009
823
381
Lots of Android AI features, such Magic erasers were only available on newest Pixel devices as well. Then gradually expended to all other Android including iPhone.

Google is doing on server side, whereas Apple is doing AI locally.

Whether this is for pushing user to buy new phone or privacy, I feel like locally run AI model will be battery killer and have potential performance impact.
Exactly there is no reason why this cannot be added to the other phones from a local perspective. The M1 is the barrier for Macs and iPads on those features and honestly while the M1 is a fantastic processor its not that more advanced than the A16 Bionic in the end.

What would be great is if Apple provided a option to run locally or cloud for faster responses you have to run locally and if you really want to, lock out the local feature on anything below an M1 or A17.
 
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