Apple has finally rolled out AI features with new software update and is offering bounty to ethical hackers to enhance security. Picture: Apple
Apple has finally started rolling out the highly anticipated artificial intelligence (AI) features for iPhone, iPad, and Mac devices with the iOS18.1 software update.
This comes weeks after announcing the feature when it launched its new iPhone 16 series in September.
The generative AI features include abilities such as writing messages for you, summarising email contents, advanced editing tools for photos, a glowing new interface for Siri, and a Notes app that can now carry out live transcriptions for phone calls and audio, as well as create summaries of the transcriptions.
These features are only available on the new iPhone 16 series, iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max as well as Macs using M-series chips, and the new iPad Mini using the A17 chip.
More features are set to arrive in the iOS 18.2, iPadOS 18.2 and macOS Sequoia 15.2 updates, including custom emoji generation, Image Playground, a generative image feature, Google Lens-like Visual Intelligence and integration with OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Apple said it is adding localised English support in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa and the UK in December.
There is an update planned to add Chinese, Indian English, Singaporian English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish and Vietnamese, among others in April 2025.
The iOS 18.1 update also includes the ability to use AirPods Pro as over-the-counter hearing aids.
The company has also announced that it will be offering a bounty of up to $1 million (approximately R17 million) for ethical hackers and security researchers who could demonstrate vulnerabilities in its “Private Cloud Compute” servers, the cloud-based system responsible for processing intensive AI tasks.
This initiative is Apple’s effort to strengthen the security of the Private Cloud Compute (PCC) servers. The PCC servers, which will handle certain AI-powered tasks, are a critical component of Apple Intelligence.
Through the Virtual Research Environment (VRE) that Apple has opened, researchers and virtual security enthusiasts will have access to their PCC software, allowing them to scrutinise its code and security measures and identify potential weaknesses.
Apple said in a statement that by offering a substantial reward for critical vulnerabilities, it is encouraging the global cybersecurity community to contribute to the security of its AI infrastructure and “build public trust”.
IOL TECHNOLOGY