Author | Huang Yu

Editor | Liu Baodan

Apple has officially "married" OpenAI, and Apple Intelligence has finally found its soul.

On December 12, also the fifth day of OpenAI's year-end AI Spring Festival, OpenAI announced that ChatGPT is now fully integrated with Apple, supporting the ChatGPT feature on Apple devices including iPhone, iPad, and Mac. On the same day, Apple released system updates for iOS, iPadOS, and MacOS.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman posted on the X platform, stating: Now you can use ChatGPT with just one button!

The smart voice assistant Siri is the most direct window for Apple users to trigger ChatGPT.

It is reported that Apple users can wake up Siri in almost any application. By double-clicking the command key, the Siri prompt box can be displayed, and when Siri determines the task to be too complex, the system will ask if assistance from ChatGPT is needed, handing over the problem to ChatGPT.

Some describe Siri after this update as having undergone a 'transformative change.' It is reported that when users pose complex questions, such as planning travel itineraries or requiring Other technical support, Siri will harness the power of ChatGPT to provide smarter and more detailed answers.

In addition, Apple has also been endowed with ChatGPT's visual intelligence capabilities. When users take photos or select images from albums, the camera control function conducts a preliminary analysis of the images, extracting key elements from the images, such as people, objects, scenes, and more. These details are then transmitted to ChatGPT for further understanding and processing.

Apple states that the large model integrated this time uses OpenAI's GPT-4o model. Regarding privacy, which has received much attention, Apple has incorporated privacy protection features into the relevant functions. OpenAI does not store user requests, and the AI only calls ChatGPT when running on local devices to ensure that data is fully controlled.

Apple users do not need an OpenAI account to use the integrated ChatGPT, but users can pay for the upgraded version of ChatGPT through Apple. Additionally, users can access ChatGPT through some text menus.

However, Apple AI is still not supported in mainland China, primarily aimed at users in specific English-speaking regions.

According to Apple's previously announced plans, the English version of Apple AI will launch in the USA in October this year and will gradually expand to countries and regions such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United Kingdom starting in December. Next year, Apple Intelligence will update to include other language versions such as Chinese, French, Japanese, and Spanish.

The news of Apple's collaboration with OpenAI was made public during this year's Apple Developer Conference (WWDC) in June. At that time, Apple, which had been progressing slowly with AI large models, announced plans to deeply integrate ChatGPT into the Apple product matrix.

The market also expects Apple to redefine user behavior on the edge AI and drive a wave of hardware upgrades.

In October, Apple officially launched the first wave of Apple Intelligence features, but tools for writing, the completely redesigned Siri (with marquee light effects), and the notification summary did not bring much surprise to the outside world.

For Apple, the integration with ChatGPT is undoubtedly a milestone event, marking a critical step in its AI terminals and making the selling points of the iPhone 16 series truly concrete.

Many investors point out that as Apple continuously adds new features to its intelligence, it will boost iPhone sales, drive the upgrade cycle, and may solidify Apple's leading position in consumer-focused AI.

2024 is the 'Year of the AI Phone,' and no one dares to be absent in this round of competition. In this arena, Samsung fired the first shot in AI phones, while Huawei, OPPO, Honor, vivo and others continue to make progress, with Apple, which has arrived late, now officially joining this race.

A common consensus is that generative AI will bring revolutionary impacts to the smart phone market, and AI phones are expected to rapidly penetrate the mobile phone market.

According to CCID CONSULTING data statistics, the global shipment of new AI phones in 2023 is about 50 million units, and by 2024, the shipment of AI phones is expected to reach 0.15 billion units, accounting for 13% of the total global smart phone shipments. By 2027, the global sales of AI phones are expected to exceed 50%.

However, there is currently no true winner emerging in the AI phone arena, and whether Apple can maintain its kingly status in the global market remains uncertain.