Apple’s Explanation of Why You Need an IPhone 15 Pro to Use Apple Intelligence Seems Wrong
” AI for all of us .” That’s how Apple advertises Apple Intelligence , the company’s future expertise in generative artificial intelligence, on its website. The problem is that this slogan only applies if you have the right device: a new Mac or a brand new iPhone.
Apple Intelligence is full of features we haven’t seen before in iOS, iPadOS, and macOS. Following in the footsteps of ChatGPT and Gemini , Apple Intelligence is capable of generating images, text editing, proofreading, smart summaries, and enhancing Siri so that the digital assistant actually helps you.
To enable these features, Apple is making Apple Intelligence available only on select iPhones, iPads, and Macs. For the last two categories, it’s a pretty wide net: only iPads and M-series Macs can run Apple Intelligence. Of course, this doesn’t take into account the many Intel Macs still in use today, as well as iPads with Apple A-series chips, but the company has been selling M-series devices since 2020. Many Mac users have switched to Apple Silicon, which means they’ll see these AI features when they upgrade to macOS Sequoia in the fall—or at least the features Apple has implemented by then.
However, on the iOS side things are not so liberal. Only those of us with an iPhone 15 Pro or 15 Pro Max will be able to use Apple Intelligence when it is available in the upcoming iOS 18. This is because Apple requires the A17 Pro chip to run Apple Intelligence on iOS, which the company has implemented only at the moment these are the iPhones. Even the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus, released at the same time as the Pro, can’t run Apple Intelligence because they use last year’s A16 Bionic chip.
Why Apple Intelligence is only available on new Apple devices
Apple’s position is that Apple Intelligence is so demanding that it needs to run on the most powerful hardware currently available to the company. Much of this is the processing power of the desktop-class M-series chips, along with a minimum of 8GB of unified RAM. (The iPhone 15 Pro also comes with 8GB of RAM.) But the core component of Apple Intelligence is likely the Neural Engine: Although Apple has included the Neural Engine in all iPhone chips since the A11 Bionic in the iPhone X, 8, and 8 Plus, Apple has started add Neural Engine to Mac with M1 only .
This position is largely reflected in an interview between Daring Fireball’s John Gruber and Apple CMO Greg Joswiak . Joswiak responded to a question about why older Apple devices don’t support Apple Intelligence:
So when you run these models at runtime, it’s called inference, and inference of large language models is incredibly computationally expensive. So it’s a combination of the throughput of the device, the size of the Apple Neural Engine, and the capabilities of the device to actually run these models fast enough to be useful. In theory you could run these models on a very old device, but it would be so slow that it would be useless.
Essentially, Apple thinks the compromised Apple Intelligence experience isn’t worth having at all, and only wants the feature to work on hardware that can “handle it.” So, no Apple Intelligence for Intel Macs, no iPhones other than the 15 Pro.
Apple Intelligence will likely be able to run on more devices
While there is merit to this argument, it’s certainly easy to take a cynical view and assume that Apple is trying to push customers into buying a new iPhone or Mac. I don’t actually think that’s the case, but I don’t buy the idea that Apple Intelligence can only work on these devices. Keeping Apple Intelligence on M series Macs makes the most sense to me: they’re Macs with Apple’s neural engine, so it’s easiest to get those AI features up and running.
It’s the iPhone and iPad that confuse me. These devices have neural motors built into the SoC. Sure, they may not be as powerful as the Neural Engine in the iPhone 15 Pro (Apple claims the Neural Engine in the A17 Pro is almost twice as fast as the Neural Engine in the A16 ), but I find it hard to believe the 2022 Apple Neural Engine. not fast enough to handle the functions that a chip released in 2023 can perform. I also wouldn’t be surprised if Apple could get Apple Intelligence to work well on more expensive Intel Macs, but at least those devices don’t have neural engines at all.
Not to mention that not all processing will happen on the device anyway. When iOS or macOS deems a process too intensive for the A17 Pro or M series chip to handle on its own, it outsources that processing to the cloud—albeit, in Apple-style, as privately as possible . Even if the A16 Bionic can’t handle as much local AI processing as the A17 Pro, how much will the experience degrade if you move more of those processes to the cloud?
Who needs Apple Intelligence anyway?
But here’s the thing: Even if Apple decides to unnecessarily exclude Apple Intelligence from the iPhone 15 and earlier models, I don’t think it will help sell more iPhone 15 Pros. I think the company simply doesn’t want to waste resources on optimizing a feature that isn’t in high demand. Despite the popularity and prominence of ChatGPT, I don’t believe that “more AI” is what most iPhone and Mac users are looking for in their devices. I think most customers buy a new iPhone or new Mac for the core features, like communicating with friends (especially via iMessage), taking quality photos, and using their favorite apps. AI features built into the OS could be a plus, but it’s hard to say since there’s really no precedent for consumers buying hardware built for AI.
Personally, if I had an Intel Mac or iPhone 14 Pro that worked fine, I wouldn’t consider it a reason to upgrade: even if Siri sounds more useful now. I think Apple knows this and doesn’t want to waste time developing these features for older devices. It probably doesn’t have the resources to do so anyway —the company is delaying key AI features like Siri updates, so it has time to make sure everything works as it should before moving on to the next set of AI options.
While Apple Intelligence may be the feature set that grabs most of the headlines, most people are going to upgrade their iPhones and instead find other useful changes , some of which are indeed AI-based. You’ll now have the ability to completely customize your Home screen , controlling where app icons go and even what they look like. You’ll be able to send messages via satellite without cellular service , and you’ll also find new text effects and options in Messages . You’ll even be able to mirror your iPhone’s display on your Mac if that’s what you want.
The thing is, iPhone and Mac will have a lot of new features compatible with iOS 18 and macOS 15, even if Apple Intelligence isn’t one of them. I understand Apple’s reasoning, and while I’m willing to bet the company will be able to use Apple Intelligence on older devices, I don’t think you’ll be missing out on much . We’ll see when Apple Intelligence actually arrives – piece by piece.