📱 Apple releases IOS 18 and MacOS 15

A good update despite missing AI

Estimated Read Time: 5 minutes

Apple dropped their big updates this week, but without any AI flair. Meanwhile Snapchat moves to make its platform full of AI “art” while Mistral slashes prices and creates a free tier for developers. Plus a list of every device that’ll support Apple Intelligence when it comes out next month.

• 🍎 IOS 18 and MacOS 15 release without AI features.

• 🤖 Every device supported by Apple Intelligence.

• 📸 Snapchat is getting AI generation tools.

• 💰 Mistral introduces free tier and slashes prices.

• 🤑 BlackRock and Microsoft reach into AI investments.

🍎 IOS 18 and MacOS 15 release without AI features

What happened: Apple just released a massive update for IOS and MacOS. But most the big AI features are missing. But here’s what’s included.

The details: 

• IOS 18 and MacOS 15 are now available, but the AI features from “Apple Intelligence” are mostly not available until IOS 18.1 and MacOS 15.1 release next month.

• Both updates mostly focus on typical quality of life tweaks and additions.

• MacOS 15 breaks Apple’s typical trend of dropping support for older hardware. It’s available for most Macs which already ran MacOS 14.

Key Mac features:

• You can mirror your iPhone to your Mac’s screen.

• Sequoia introduces window tiling, letting you organize windows by snapping them to different parts of the screen. Yay for multitasking!

• The Passwords app is now a standalone application.

• Safari receives new features like Highlights and Reader summaries to improve web browsing, along with a ‘Hide Distracting Items’ option to minimize on-screen clutter.

• Built-in apps such as Messages, Photos, Notes, and even Chess have been updated with new functionalities and design improvements.

• There’s also a ton of under-the-hood security updates.

Key iPhone features:

• A more customizable homescreen and Control Center.

• Messages got a facelift. iIncluding the ability to use any emoji as a Tapback reaction, bold and underlines, and you can schedule messages to be sent later. Plus RCS support for messages with Android devices (surprising).

• The Photos app has been redesigned to anticipate future AI updates. A lot of people are upset about this.

• You can lock any app behind ID verification, such as Face ID or Touch ID or just a passcode. You can also hide apps, which moves them to a hidden folder that requires ID verification to unlock. Cheaters can finally hide their sneaky Tinder apps! Yay?

• Safari has a distraction control, which allows you to hide extra elements on websites such as signup forms.

• A Game Mode which minimizes background activity to give videogames priority performance.

Neat features:

• Audio and transcription features to the Notes app, so you can record audio and get a live transcript on the iPhone 12 and later.

• Notes can crunch numbers and equations for you.

No, there aren’t any major AI features yet. The first Apple Intelligence features will come next month.

Why it matters: This is a good update, but nothing substantial. Apple Intelligence will have to be judged next month when they update. That includes the new Siri. Until then, check out the next article for a list of Apple Intelligence supported devices.

🤖 Every device supported by Apple Intelligence.

iPhones

• iPhone 16

• iPhone 16 Plus

• iPhone 16 Pro

• iPhone 16 Pro Max

• iPhone 15 Pro

• iPhone 15 Pro Max

Macs

• M3 MacBook Air

• M2 MacBook Air

• M1 MacBook Air

• M3 MacBook Pro

• M2 MacBook Pro

• M1 MacBook Pro

• M3 iMac

• M1 iMac

• M2 Mac mini

• M1 Mac mini

• M2 Mac Studio

• M1 Mac Studio

• M2 Mac Pro

iPads

• M4 iPad Pro

• M2 iPad Pro

• M1 iPad Pro

• M2 iPad Air

• M1 iPad Air

Hope that clears the air for everyone.

Tip: Check your device by going to system settings and clicking “About”. This should display which device you have.

📸 Snapchat is getting AI generation tools. Snapchat has announced a new AI video-generation tool allowing creators to generate videos from text prompts, with image prompt support coming soon. The tool, available in beta on the web, is limited to a small group of creators for now. Snap’s very own video models power the tool. All AI-generated content will feature a visible watermark, even when downloaded or shared. The age of AI slop is upon us.

🤔 Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, has stepped down from the Safety and Security Committee, in a move which surprises no one. The Committee was an internal group created to oversee key safety decisions within the company. It’s now led by Carnegie Mellon professor Zico Kolter, and will operate independently and include OpenAI board members such as Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo and others. It retains authority to delay AI model releases until safety concerns are resolved, and it conducted a review of OpenAI’s latest model after Altman’s departure.

Sam Altman’s been heavily criticized, both from within the company and outside, for prioritizing profits and progress over AI safety. There’s also plans to turn OpenAI into a more traditional for-profit company next year.

Ironically OpenAI is simultaneously claiming GPT-o1 can have real, original thoughts of its own. Like a human. That’s not creepy at all.

🚨 Larry Ellison says AI will someday watch your every move. You know, like Big Brother or a police state. At an Oracle financial analysts meeting, founder Larry Ellison predicted that AI would eventually power extensive law enforcement surveillance networks, continuously monitoring police officers and citizens to reduce crime. He suggested that this constant supervision would encourage good behavior, as AI would report issues in real-time. While AI could definitely be used positively this way, I think people who gleefully anticipate such a scenario REALLY don’t understand human nature, the motivations of people in power or the real life consequences of living in such a heavily surveyed world. It’s more nightmare than dream.

🚔 AI could do most police paperwork someday. Andy Marsh, CEO of the College of Policing, has called for the rapid integration of artificial intelligence into police forces to reduce the paperwork burden on officers. Speaking at the Police Superintendents’ Association conference, Marsh emphasized that AI could automate tasks such as preparing prosecution case files, writing statements, and generating reports, with human oversight to ensure accuracy. While this might sound good, in truth serious biases will always exist in AI, because AI was created and trained by people and data with serious biases. And it can be stupid. Really stupid. Police paperwork should only be automated when it’s seriously reliable to do so.

💰 Mistral introduces free tier and slashes prices

What happened: Mistral AI has introduced a new free tier for developers to fine-tune and build test applications using its AI models. It’s also slashing prices for other users.

The details:

• Developers can now experiment, evaluate, and prototype with Mistral’s AI models at no cost via its platform, la Plateforme, although higher rate limits for production use require a paid commercial tier.

• Prices have been cut. Pricing for Mistral NeMo, Mistral Small, and Codestral through API endpoints have been slashed by more than 50%, and Mistral Large’s price has been reduced by 33%.

• Mistral’s AI chatbot, le Chat, now features Pixtral 12B, the company’s first multimodal model capable of scanning, analyzing, and searching image files.

Why it matters: This is another free and powerful tool for developers to play with. This also allows people to learn about AI systems and experiement without any major costs. It’s a good idea. And Mistral AI isn’t a slouch, their models are high end and compete with other top models.

🤑 BlackRock and Microsoft reach into AI

What happened: BlackRock and Microsoft are reaching their grimy hands into more AI investments. There’s a lot of money going into this. And who doesn’t love BlackRock?

The details: 

• BlackRock and Microsoft are teaming up to launch the Global AI Infrastructure Investment Partnership, a fund exceeding $30 billion aimed at investing in artificial intelligence infrastructure such as data centers and energy projects.

• MGX is a general partner in the fund. Nvidia will provide expertise.

• This will utilize up to $100B in funding and focus mostly on the United States. That’s nuts. 

Why this matters: The investment shows how badly AI companies need massive infrastructure. BlackRock’s further involvement was inevitable but partnerships like these give credence to the whole, “Tech companies have a massive monopoly” argument.

Unlike previous tech booms, which gave room for new companies to thrive, the previous generation of companies, such as Google and Microsoft, are very well positioned to take over this boom in tech as well. That’s not exactly a good thing.

🐱 Cats vs Dogs

Source: Midjourney

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