Apple Intelligence Guide
AI baked into iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
What it is
Apple's AI features built into iPhone 15 Pro and newer, iPads with M1 chip+, and Macs with Apple Silicon. Free. Built in. Most processing happens ON your phone (private).
What works on which device
- iPhone 15 Pro / Pro Max
- iPhone 16 / 16 Plus / 16 Pro / 16 Pro Max
- iPhone 14 and older (not enough chip power)
- iPad with M1+ chip
- Mac with M1+ chip
- Free with iOS 18.1+, iPadOS 18.1+, macOS 15+.
Senior-friendly features
- Cleaner — remove tourists from your photos. Tap → select → done.
- Email summary — top of long emails get a 1-line summary.
- Notification summary — bundles 10 messages into one short blurb.
- Writing tools — highlight any text, tap "Proofread" or "Rewrite friendly". Fixes grammar.
- Smart Siri — better at understanding "umm" and "actually I meant..."
- ChatGPT in Siri — ask Siri something, she taps ChatGPT for tough questions (with permission).
- Image Playground — describe an image, AI draws it. Fun for cards/birthdays.
- Genmoji — describe a custom emoji, get a unique one.
- Recording with summary — record a phone call, get transcript and summary.
How to turn it on
- Settings → Apple Intelligence & Siri.
- Toggle "Apple Intelligence" ON.
- iPhone downloads ~5GB of AI models (over wifi).
- Wait 30 minutes. Features start appearing.
- Optional: connect ChatGPT under "Extensions".
Privacy notes
- Most processing on YOUR device — never uploaded.
- Bigger requests use Apple's "Private Cloud Compute" — encrypted, deleted after.
- ChatGPT integration is opt-in. Asks before each use.
- Apple says no training on your data. (Google and Meta sometimes do.)
Best one to try first
"Clean Up" in Photos. Open any photo, tap Edit → Clean Up. Tap any unwanted person, sign, or trash can. AI removes it. Magic. Once you do it once, you'll go through old photos cleaning them up.