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Other It's official: iOS 18's AI requires iPhone 15 Pro

Crow_Servo said:
The difference here is that one of the phones prior to this year’s new iPhones will also support these new features. In the past, the hot new feature wouldn’t be announced until that year’s iPhones are revealed.

The latest camera features in years past would be a good example of something that would only be included on that year’s iPhone, not also on the previous year’s Pro iPhone. Also, those new camera features would not be revealed at WWDC.
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Camera features don't need dev involvement and a better photo is simply a better photo. But for AI, Apple wants devs to start using the new APIs and frameworks immediately. Apple didn't need to show off camera features at WWDC but they need to for AI.

Regardless of what the new features of the year are, it's safe to assume they won't be supported on the current hardware (unless Apple needs devs to go to work immediately).
 
I always felt it was odd that the 15 Pro featuring the A17 Pro and 2 gigs more ram did not really have a major advantage over the regular 15 in terms of additional features offered by the capabilities of the chipset at launch. Especially since Apple bothered to give the new chip a "Pro" label for the first time. But now I think it makes sense: they needed to have at least one iPhone capable of running the new AI for its introduction at WWDC.
 
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Falcon9 said:
I always felt it was odd that the 15 Pro featuring the A17 Pro and 2 gigs more ram did not really have a major advantage over the regular 15 in terms of additional features offered by the capabilities of the chipset at launch. Especially since Apple bothered to give the new chip a "Pro" label for the first time. But now I think it makes sense: they needed to have at least one iPhone capable of running the new AI for its introduction at WWDC.
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We’ve had 6GB RAM since iPhone 12 Pro/Max. Apple putting 8GB on iPhone 15 Pro/Max was fully expected.

The only technical aspect that’s strange is Apple is typically better with memory usage compared to Android. Given Google’s Gemini Nano model requires 8GB and likely performs far better, it’s strange that Apple also needs 8GB with far less features.
 
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dumastudetto said:
iPhone 14 Pros only have 6GB RAM, so that's almost certainly the unforeseeable limitation that makes on-device AI impossible. On-device AI uses a heap of RAM.

Apple probably regrets not putting the extra 2GB In them now.
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On the contrary, they love it because they can up sell the new iPhones.
 
ThatsMeRight said:
This surely complicates things.

If you're considering upgrading to a newer iPhone in the next few months, make sure it's the 15 Pro (Max) and not the regular 15. Otherwise you'll miss out on a lot of new AI features in iOS 18...
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I saw that coming back in September/October of last year (though I didn’t expect to see it come up so soon). When I saw that the Pro had a newer processor and that the standard 15 was running an older chip, I opted for the Pro for just that much more future proofing (which clearly was the right choice in retrospect).
 
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Not supporting this on their current latest "normal" iPhone looks quite terrible for Apple. They have been skimping on RAM in their devices forever now, always giving them as little as they could get away with. You have mid-range Android devices with 12 gigs now, and apple latest iPhone 15 which costs 4 times as much only has 6.

They have been stuffing their SoC with neural engine for years, and now that there is finally a feature which could take advantage of it fully, we are told to upgrade to get it. So in the end, the customer will foot the bill for Apple's bad decisions/greed in terms of future proofing their devices. And for that reason, i have never wanted to switch out of their ecosystem more than i want now.
 
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Samsung did the same, full AI only on S24 and higher.

Did i miss it: no cycle to search?
But great: iPhone XS gets iOS Updates up to may 2025.
 
JPack said:
The question is, why would Apple's model that only uses 11 TOPS require 8GB RAM?

If Google's Gemini Nano requires 8GB RAM, then why would Apple's far less capable model require the same 8GB?
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*shrug* could be that on the older devices the GPU compute available is also leveraged for these workloads.
Apple also like, wants a clear good user experience so it probably uses less than 8, but they wanna leave space for other stuff in the background.
 
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dumastudetto said:
iPhone 14 Pros only have 6GB RAM, so that's almost certainly the unforeseeable limitation that makes on-device AI impossible. On-device AI uses a heap of RAM.

Apple probably regrets not putting the extra 2GB In them now.
Click to expand...
If so then all the base line macs they sell with 8 gigs are gonna feel a bit redundant
 
forums.macrumors.com

Talk about the consequences of AI!

Why won’t anybody talk about the severe consequences of integrated AI for heaven’s sake? Privacy is one thing, but why would you allow the slow degeneration of your brain and thinking skills by giving AI the power to articulate your thoughts? You have an AI that writes Emails for you so...
forums.macrumors.com forums.macrumors.com
 
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Falcon9 said:
I always felt it was odd that the 15 Pro featuring the A17 Pro and 2 gigs more ram did not really have a major advantage over the regular 15 in terms of additional features offered by the capabilities of the chipset at launch. Especially since Apple bothered to give the new chip a "Pro" label for the first time. But now I think it makes sense: they needed to have at least one iPhone capable of running the new AI for its introduction at WWDC.
Click to expand...
This is a good observation. And probably exactly why they did it.
 
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ThatsMeRight said:
This surely complicates things.

If you're considering upgrading to a newer iPhone in the next few months, make sure it's the 15 Pro (Max) and not the regular 15. Otherwise you'll miss out on a lot of new AI features in iOS 18...
Click to expand...
While you are correct in recommending iPhones 15 Pro, this is perhaps one of the very rare years where I genuinely think it makes a lot sense to hold off for the iPhones made for iOS 18 or next year's iPhones, 16 and 17.

I've been saying Apple would limit most or all of the AI/LAM stuff to certain models since the first talks about Apple's AI stuff.

Knowing Apple, this was very obvious.

But, while not wildly impressive, and likely to only become truly must-have over many years from now, I think it's safe to say that AI/LAM in iOS is indeed a legitimate paradigm shift for future iOS upgrades and iPhones.

Most importantly, we don't yet know how Apple will limit features across devices as it develops Apple Intelligence.

To be quite frank, and this is not a criticism, I don't get the impression that Apple knows exactly where this will go and what specs this could require a few years from now. And right now, it doesn't seem like the bulk of what was presented will even rollout completely until months or years after iOS 18 launches.

I fully expect all the Apple Intelligence stuff to be the most "in-beta" iOS features we've ever seen with many(!) delays and updates getting rolled back.

My recommendation is then to, at the very least, hold off on upgrading until iPhones 16 drop.

Only those who confidently know they don't care or deliberately want to avoid Apple Intelligence should buy now.
 
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Tripps9000 said:
I’m okay not having all this ai stuff on my phone I have a iPhone 14 and very happy with it I am going to wait for the 17 series of iPhone because from rumors on here and other places they will have a totally new design for that series and I can wait until next year👍🏻
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Apple Intelligence will be literally or figuratively in beta until iPhones 17 at the very least.

The fact that Apple has only been making deals with OpenAI in the last six months(?) or so tells me that most of what we saw of Apple Intelligence is very early in development.

Apple even said it in its presentation, albeit not in bold letters.

And limiting it to iPhones 15 Pro isn't just a trick to get us to spend more. It's also an easy solution to have less users experience the laggy and lackluster mess that Apple Intelligence will surely be when it launches initially. That is when it even graduates from being in beta.

Holding off for iPhones 17 is a good idea.
 
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Torty said:
Elon musk has security concerns.
https://twitter.com/x/status/1800265431078551973

You don't have to rush with the update.
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Elon Musk has as many concerns about as many things as there a minutes in a day. That is if he's not caught up in a short phase of excited mania and completely elated about everything and everyone, and promising me and my mom robo-taxis and a free mansion on a terraformed Mars in 2030.

With all respect to neurodivergent people who only face scrutiny and bullying, Elon Musk walks, talks and writes like someone with ADHD and autism, and his proclamations should be read with those conditions in mind.

-He's very(!) rarely balanced or well-researched when he makes a tweet, and even less prone to possess any level of self-awareness in regards to what his many companies put out, products and services that are no less worrying to the public than anything Apple, OpenAI or any other company produce.

As a global society and "tech news sphere", we need to stop making Elon's every tweet a headline.

Like, didn't we all grasp the moral of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf"?
 
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Crow_Servo said:
The difference here is that one of the phones prior to this year’s new iPhones will also support these new features. In the past, the hot new feature wouldn’t be announced until that year’s iPhones are revealed.

The latest camera features in years past would be a good example of something that would only be included on that year’s iPhone, not also on the previous year’s Pro iPhone. Also, those new camera features would not be revealed at WWDC.
Click to expand...
The iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max have been by far the most “highly supported”/exclusive feature devices in that they got so many exclusive games, features and now a huge exclusive feature namely Apple Intelligence.

When Apple announced the A17 Pro in the iPhone 15 Pro announcement, they clearly made a huge statement with the adjustment in chip naming as this has now set an interesting trend.
 
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dumastudetto said:
iPhone 14 Pros only have 6GB RAM, so that's almost certainly the unforeseeable limitation that makes on-device AI impossible. On-device AI uses a heap of RAM.

Apple probably regrets not putting the extra 2GB In them now.
Click to expand...
I would even say thats the exact reason why apple did not put any more ram in their baseline-devices, so people that want ai will upgrade another time to a new ‘capable’ device now that the ai tech is out. They planned this years ahead all that time, no one understood why all their devices had such little ram to start with 🙃
 
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