The new iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro line of smartphones go up for pre-order on September 13 and should be available starting September 20. But a key feature won't be available at launch.

Apple Intelligence, which is Apple's name for its suite of AI tools, will begin rolling out in October as part of iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1. But Apple says the software will still be considered a beta, only some of the features Apple has announced will be available, and Apple Intelligence will only be available for devices with Siri's language set to English.

Apple does plan to expand in the coming months, promising to begin adding support for additional languages and regions in December, with more coming next year. But given how much buzz AI has been generating in recent years, and given how many think pieces have been written about how Apple Intelligence could be the killer app that drives sales of the iPhone 16, it's interesting to see the company taking such a cautious approach to its rollout.

It's also interesting to note that most of the things Apple is promising its AI software will do are the same kinds of features we've seen from other companies.

Want to use your iPhone's camera to snap a picture of a landmark, animal, or business and get more information? Apple calls this "Visual Intelligence." Google calls it "Google Lens" and has been offering a similar feature for years.

Want to remove objects from a photo? Apple calls this the "Clean Up tool." Google calls it "Magic Eraser."

And Apple's new Writing Tools can also help you summarize, rewrite in a different style, or proofread text… much the way ChatGPT and Google Gemini can.

There are two things that may make Apple Intelligence stand out though, even if its feature set seems familiar. The first is tight integration into Apple's ecosystem. This allows you to do things like use natural language to search the Photos app for pictures, videos, or even portions of a video that are relevant to your request. Or you can use the Notes and Phone apps to record, transcribe and summarize phone calls.

The other distinguishing feature is Apple's focus on privacy. Apple says that "many of the models that power" Apple Intelligence "run entirely on device," with no data sent to Apple's servers. But even for more complex tasks that cannot be completed using the processing power in your local device, Apple has developed a "Private Cloud Compute" system that allows you to establish a secure connection with a remote server in such a way that your "data is never stored or shared with Apple."

While Apple also allows users to (optionally) tap into third-party services like ChatGPT, the company has added security layers by obscuring users' IP addresses and ensuring that ChatGPT won't store user request data.

Is any of that enough to distinguish Apple Intelligence from what competitors are calling AI? It's probably too early to say. But with Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and other companies banking on AI, it would have been surprising if Apple didn't introduce its own take on AI.

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