New iOS 18 leak hints at more iPhone AI capabilities including upgraded Siri and Spotlight

If you're an iPhone owner who has been keeping up with the iOS 18 rumors you'll already know that there are some new features coming later this year. The iOS 18 software update is expected to bring plenty of AI smarts to the iPhone, and a new leak has detailed some of the beneficiaries of those improvements.

According to AppleInsider Apple intends to bring its AI capabilities to bear on a few different aspects of the iPhone, with both Siri and Spotlight likely to be upgraded.

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The report details a new text summarization feature that will come to Siri as well as the Safari web browser. Apple is reportedly testing AI-powered enhancements that will allow people to get summaries of the webpage they're looking at, while Siri will be able to do something similar within the Messages app. Sources told the website that Apple's AI will be able to analyze message contents and then use its on-device large language model to generate a response.

Because the AI work will be carried out locally on the iPhone rather than being handled by a cloud server, users can expect a faster experience as well as benefitting from increased privacy. It's expected that Apple will lean on the latter, especially as it fits with its privacy and security-first selling point for the iPhone.

The same report adds that Spotlight is expected to offer more intelligent results and improved sorting as a result of the new AI capabilities, something that will no doubt be of benefit to those who use the feature on their iPhones. Spotlight can be great in iOS 17, but it can also make some strange suggestions at times and AI may help improve that considerably.

If Apple's plans follow its previous releases, iOS 18 will be announced at the June 10 WWDC event before being immediately made available to developers for testing. We can then expect a months-long beta program with both developers and public testers involved before the update is rolled out to everyone. Modern iPhones are all likely to be supported, while the iOS 18 update will also come preinstalled on all iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max devices. Those new 2024 iPhones are all expected to be announced and released in September, too.

Before then Apple is expected to announce new iPad Pro and iPad Air tablets at an event that will be held online on May 7, with new accessories also expected.