AI features are being introduced by Apple. How do they affect your right to privacy?

New colors, a redesigned camera button, and—possibly most importantly—a new artificial intelligence system are all part of Apple's new iPhone 16 lineup.

Next month, the tech giant plans to release in beta certain features from "Apple Intelligence," a personal intelligence system that can act across many apps. According to the business, customers may use the technology to compose amiable emails, make emojis, and ask Siri to compile information in response to queries like when a family member's aircraft is scheduled to land.

However, how do the additional features affect users' privacy?

Apple has disclosed how it intends to secure data upon the AI system's launch. Although these concepts seem novel, tech privacy experts and campaigners told USA TODAY that they are waiting to see exactly how they pan out.

Miranda Bogen, director of the AI Governance Lab at the Center for Democracy and Technology, said, "While there's a lot of innovation and thinking about privacy with the new system, there are still open questions on how effective these interventions will be in the end, especially if we see more examples from other companies trying to do similar things."

On September 9, 2024, in Cupertino, California, at an Apple special event, the new iPhone 16 Pro is on exhibit. To unveil the new iPhone 16, Airpods, and Apple Watch models, Apple threw an event.

The operation of Apple Intelligence

Only devices with suitable chips—such as the iPhone 16 series, the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max, and iPads and Macs with M1 and later chips—will be able to utilize Apple Intelligence.

Next month, when Apple releases iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1, the first phase of the rollout will start.

Among the new features are:

◍ A "richer language-understanding capabilities" version of Siri that is "more natural and flexible" to enable the AI assistant follow along when users mispronounce words and keep context intact between queries.

◍ New writing features that assist users in summarizing, editing, and rewriting material in Notes, Pages, Mail, and other apps.

◍ Enhancements to Photos: a “Memories” feature that allows users to make movies “just by typing a description,” better search capabilities, and a “Clean Up” tool that locates and eliminates background objects are among the updates.

◍ Notes and Phone app updates that allow users to record, transcribe, and summarize audio. The Phone app alerts users when a recording starts, and AI compiles a summary of the main ideas spoken during the session.

When will the iPhone 16 be available?Find out when yours is available.

More features, such as the ability to use OpenAI's ChatGPT from "several experiences" within the operating system, will be added, according to Apple, in the months to come.

Apple might sell more than 240 million iPhones in fiscal 2025, according to Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives, because of the new AI features.

"We think that the launch of the iPhone 16 will be the most successful in Apple's history, as Apple Intelligence will serve as the catalyst for the global consumer AI revolution," Ives stated in a memo on Monday.

assurances of privacy

According to Apple, its AI technology is "built to protect users' privacy at every step."

Apple Intelligence will handle prompts in one of two ways: on-device processing, which is often the recommended approach for protecting user privacy, is the first technique.

"Sensitive, private information can be kept under an individual's control with on-device processing," according to John Verdi, senior vice president of policy at the Future of Privacy Forum, a data privacy think tank.

Apple is introducing Private Cloud Compute to handle more complicated requests that cannot be completed on-device. Apple claims that when consumers send their data to the cloud, it is never retained or shared with the corporation; instead, the cloud intelligence system is intended for private AI processing.

In a June blog post, the company stated that Private Cloud Compute ensures that customer data "isn’t accessible to anyone other than the user – not even to Apple." "We think PCC is the most sophisticated security architecture ever used for large-scale cloud AI computation."

Additionally, Apple announced that it will release software images of each Private Cloud Compute production build so that security experts may confirm its functionality and find any problems.

Although consumers shouldn't anticipate instant results from this kind of research, Thorin Klosowski, a security and privacy campaigner at the nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation—a group that defends digital rights—says that transparency "is a good thing."

"We won't have a clear understanding of their tactics, methods, or effectiveness for some time," he stated, advising people not to divulge "too deep" levels of personal or confidential information.

"I think conceptually, it looks good," he continued.

"The Private Cloud Compute's operation and efficacy raise a number of technical questions and details, but it is undeniably an acknowledgement that confidentiality is a major area of concern," stated Alan Butler, president and executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a nonprofit organization dedicated to privacy protection.

Apple claims that customers who intend to use Writing Tools or Siri to access ChatGPT will be able to see all shared data plainly, their IP addresses will be hidden, and OpenAI will not keep or utilize any of the request data for training. Apple users can use ChatGPT without having an account, but those who choose to connect their ChatGPT account will be subject to ChatGPT's data-use restrictions.

Apple has not yet announced the release date for this feature.

"It does take you out of that insular Apple universe anytime Apple partners with an automobile company, an AI company, or anybody else," said Ryan Calo, a professor and co-director of the University of Washington Tech Policy Lab. "But ultimately, I don't think that should worry us unless we believe Apple is mishandling the data." (*)