“How is Apple Intelligence shortened?” That's the question I asked several Apple employees at WWDC 2024, and their practiced answers have become comically absurd.
“We just say Apple Intelligence,” they tell me. “Yes, but do you always say that? The acronym ai is there! I would reply. The usual response is a stiff smile and clenched teeth, like a real-time human programming error. (Yes, I am aware that this is simply overly aggressive media training in action.) One person suggested they also say “personal intelligence” – yes, a phrase that is longer than Apple Intelligence.
There is no doubt that Apple Intelligence means many things to the company. It's an effort to compete with Microsoft's (yet untested) Copilot and Google's Gemini. It's a way to make Apple look “modern” with ChatGPT. And it should enable a number of new features for consumers. But Apple Intelligence is never “ai” for Apple.
Normally, I'd chalk it up to a silly brand quirk. But it becomes a problem as we cover Apple Intelligence. It's a long phrase that begs to be shortened to “ai,” but then how is that abbreviation distinguished from ChatGPT, Copilot, and the general concept of ai? During the WWDC 2024 keynote, Apple only mentioned the phrase “artificial intelligence” three times: twice while referring to its previous ai-powered features and once while referring to “other ai tools” like ChatGPT.
At this point, I've decided to call Apple Intelligence “Apple ai.” It is shorter and differentiates the product from the competition. And yes, it just means “Apple Apple Intelligence,” but they all still say “ATM” and “PIN number.” It's not my fault that Apple decided to adopt the acronym “ai.”
Catch up here to find out all the news from Apple WWDC 2024.
