{"id":901250,"date":"2025-06-02T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-02T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cultofmac.com\/?p=901250"},"modified":"2025-06-02T12:05:20","modified_gmt":"2025-06-02T19:05:20","slug":"apple-intelligence-wwdc25-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cultofmac.com\/news\/apple-intelligence-wwdc25-rumors","title":{"rendered":"Apple Intelligence might take a backseat at WWDC25"},"content":{"rendered":"

Apple doesn\u2019t have as many Apple Intelligence features to announce at WWDC25 as it did during last year’s developer conference. However, a handful of new AI features should arrive, including Apple Intelligence-generated Shortcuts automations, an Apple Intelligence API for developers, and AI-powered health tips. Apple’s foundation language model itself will also be improved, with versions in four different sizes currently in testing.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what to expect on Apple Intelligence next Monday during the WWDC25 keynote.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Apple Intelligence may not be a big focus at WWDC25<\/h2>\n
\"Apple<\/a>
Apple Intelligence was a significant part of WWDC24.
Photo: Apple<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Apple introduced its suite of AI features under the branding \u201cApple Intelligence\u201d last year at WWDC24<\/a>. Apple entered the hotly competitive and highly contentious AI landscape with practical features that the company says anyone can use.<\/p>\n

However, after Apple announced Writing Tools<\/a>, Image Playground<\/a>, Genmoji<\/a>, Visual Intelligence<\/a> and more, the company spent much of the last 12 months implementing those features in iOS 18.1, 18.2, 18.3 and 18.4. And a major project to make Siri smarter remains delayed, leading to a management shakeup in March.<\/p>\n

Since Apple’s engineers spent most of the last year finishing and shipping those initial Apple Intelligence features, they didn’t have time to focus on big new AI features for this year\u2019s updates.<\/p>\n

That could leave this year\u2019s keynote without a blockbuster segment. While the keynotes at WWDC23 and WWDC24 dedicated nearly 40 minutes of runtime to introducing Vision Pro<\/a> and Apple Intelligence, respectively, it seems WWDC25 will be more business as usual, with only a handful of new features and other iterative improvements.<\/p>\n

So, what Apple Intelligence features can<\/em> we expect this year?<\/p>\n

Apple Intelligence-powered Shortcuts<\/h3>\n
\"Settings<\/a>
Shortcuts are a powerful, but complicated, tool.
Screenshot: D. Griffin Jones\/Cult of Mac<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Apple reportedly plans to update Shortcuts, the app that lets users build automations<\/a> by visually piecing together actions that can control apps on their devices, with Apple Intelligence. According to\u00a0Bloomberg<\/em>\u2019s Mark Gurman, \u201cthe new version will let consumers create those actions using Apple Intelligence models.\u201d<\/p>\n

Creating a Shortcut can be an intimidating process to newcomers — and tedious for experienced users. It would be a significant upgrade if you could describe in plain language what you wanted, and Apple Intelligence was smart enough to create the automation for you.<\/p>\n

App Intents, the underlying API that powers Shortcuts, was also going to power a smarter Siri that could take a command and instantly carry it out on your behalf. Apple announced this feature at WWDC24 but delayed it in March 2025<\/a> to \u201cthe coming year.\u201d That means it could be reannounced Monday.<\/p>\n

An API for developers<\/h3>\n
\"Animation<\/a>
Apple Intelligence, as opposed to most other AI platforms, can run on-device.
Image: Apple<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In iOS 18<\/a>, developers can use a limited set of APIs to add Apple\u2019s Writing Tools or Image Playground into their apps, but not much else. The big announcement this year is that developers will be able to use Apple foundation model<\/a> APIs directly.<\/p>\n

Currently, if a developer wants to add AI features to their app, like audio transcriptions or text summaries, they must use a third-party model. That means either paying API fees to another company, like Anthropic or OpenAI, or adding a small open-source model inside the app, which can reduce the quality, bloat the app size and slow down performance.<\/p>\n

Giving developers the ability to use Apple Intelligence would bring many benefits. Developers could add AI features without paying exorbitant costs, because Apple Intelligence largely runs on-device. Developers wouldn\u2019t need to integrate a third-party model into their apps, instead using a convenient API provided by Apple.<\/p>\n

This would allow many more third-party apps you use, from Airbnb<\/a>\u00a0to Impulse<\/a> to Paprika<\/a> to NetNewsWire<\/a>, the ability to build custom AI features at a much lower cost.<\/p>\n

AI-powered health coach<\/h3>\n
\"Apple<\/a>
Apple previously hesitated to give direct health advice in its app.
Image: Apple<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Project Mulberry is the internal codename for an AI coach that will analyze the information in the Health app to provide personalized recommendations<\/a>. Apple is training this AI agent with data from its in-house physicians. According to\u00a0Bloomberg<\/em>, \u201cthe project remains deep in development\u201d and will be released in spring 2026. As such, Apple might not mention it at WWDC25. If so, it likely will be qualified as \u201ccoming later.\u201d<\/p>\n

The AI health could reportedly will be part of a bigger redesign of Apple’s Health app. The company plans to make the app easier to navigate and understand. It also might add educational videos inside the app on topics like sleep, nutrition, physical therapy and mental health.<\/p>\n

Apple\u2019s foundation model is getting better<\/h3>\n
\"Apple<\/a>
Apple Intelligence runs on a single foundation model with different Adapters that can power a wide variety of features.
Image: Apple<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

According to\u00a0Bloomberg<\/em>, Apple is testing several new versions of its foundation model: \u201cVersions with 3 billion, 7 billion, 33 billion and 150 billion parameters are now in active use.\u201d The largest model would run via Private Cloud Compute<\/a>, Apple\u2019s cloud AI servers.<\/p>\n

While the latest foundation models apparently keep pace with recent versions of OpenAI\u2019s models, Apple refuses to release a ChatGPT-like conversational chatbot \u201cdue to concerns over hallucinations and philosophical differences among company executives,” according to Bloomberg<\/em>.<\/p>\n

However, improvements to the foundation model will improve the quality of every other Apple Intelligence feature. The Writing Tools will produce higher-quality results, notifications will summarize notifications more accurately, etc.<\/p>\n

Siri features remain in development hell<\/h3>\n
\"Screenshot<\/a>
These are the kinds of things you\u2019ll be able to ask the new, smarter Siri.
Image: Apple<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Apple continues working on LLM Siri, the ground-up redo of its much-maligned voice assistant. But the new version probably won\u2019t be ready this year, having recently been put under new management<\/a>. Still, “the hope is to finally give Siri a conversational interface,\u201d according to Bloomberg<\/em>.<\/p>\n

A new feature, dubbed \u201cKnowledge,\u201d is a tool \u201cthat can pull in data from the open web,\u201d like ChatGPT. This would likely answer open-ended questions you ask Siri by searching online, processing the top answers and reading you a summary of what it finds.<\/p>\n

Robby Walker, who fumbled the ball on Siri before Mike Rockwell took over, is leading the development of Knowledge. Bloomberg<\/em> says it\u2019s \u201calready been plagued by some of the same problems that delayed the Siri overhaul.\u201d<\/p>\n

More miscellaneous AI features<\/h3>\n
\"Code<\/a>
Swift Assist will be able to write or refactor your code for you.
Image: Apple<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That’s not all the Apple Intelligence features supposedly in the pipeline for WWDC25, either. According to Bloomberg<\/em>, other minor updates include:<\/p>\n