Apple CEO Tim Cook poses as Apple holds an event at the Steve Jobs Theater on its campus in Cupertino, California, on Sept. 9, 2024.
Manuel Orbegozo | Reuters
Apple on Monday released iOS 18.1, an update that includes the company’s artificial intelligence, called Apple Intelligence, for the iPhone 16 and iPhone 15 Pro. It also released software updates for iPad and Mac with Apple Intelligence.
The release is a critical milestone for Apple, which is relying on the feature launch to power its marketing campaign for the iPhone 16 lineup released last month.
It is also Apple’s answer to Wall Street’s questions about its AI strategy. Apple has taken a different path with its device-based AI than its megacap rivals, which are focused on cloud-based AI systems powered by billions of dollars of Nvidia chips.
Apple Intelligence is limited to start. The first wave of Apple Intelligence features includes writing tools that can proofread or rewrite text, new features that can remove objects from photos and a feature that can summarize a stack of notifications into a single message.
Siri updates during Apple’s WWDC2024 in Cupertino, California, on June 10, 2024.
Source: Apple Inc.
Monday’s release includes improvements to Siri, including a new look that makes the entire screen glow around the phone’s edges. Siri can answer questions about Apple products, including troubleshooting, and has more natural voices.
However, the update does not let Siri take actions inside of apps, which is expected in another update next year. Plus, another update with ChatGPT integration and image-generation abilities is also scheduled for later this year as part of iOS 18.2.
Some investors believe Apple Intelligence could drive a major upgrade cycle and cement Apple as the leader in daily usage of cutting-edge AI.
“Given the staggered launch of Apple Intelligence, we expect iPhone demand to pick up post initial release of Apple Intelligence in late Oct,” Bank of America Securities analyst Wamsi Mohan wrote in an Oct. 25 note.
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You need an iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max or any iPhone 16 model to install and use Apple Intelligence. The service primarily uses the iPhone’s chip, which is why it does not work on earlier phones, though some more complicated queries will be handled by Apple’s servers.
You also need to turn it on by asking for access to Apple Intelligence in the Settings app. Doing so puts users on a waitlist. Apple has not said how long the wait will take, but during beta tests over the summer, users typically received access within the same day. Your phone will then download large files — Apple’s AI models — that Apple Intelligence needs to operate.
Apple Intelligence can summarize important emails inside the Mail app.
Apple
The most prominent feature included with Apple Intelligence is its ability to summarize notifications. Instead of the typical stack of notifications on previous iPhone interfaces, Apple will summarize an entire stack into a single notification. It has not been perfect, but it can be useful into taking 12 market alerts from CNBC or a long conversation in a group chat into something that can be easily digested.
Another major change that users will quickly notice is that Siri has a new text interface, accessed through swiping up from the bottom of the screen, enabling users to query Siri without speaking out loud.
Apple’s Writing Tools will also show up in any place in the operating system that you can enter text, including non-Apple apps. Users can highlight chunks of text and choose to rewrite it in a more “friendly,” “professional” or “concise” style. However, Apple’s Writing Tools will not generate entire paragraphs without input.
The software suite also includes updates to Apple’s Mail and Photos apps. The Photos app now has a more intelligent search, which can understand natural language. It can also generate a short movie from a user’s photos.
To download iOS 18.1, go to Settings > General > Software Update. To sign up for the Apple Intelligence waitlist, go to Settings > Apple Intelligence and Siri > Join the Apple Waitlist.
Waymo announced it is now offering teen accounts for its self-driving car service Waymo One, beginning in Phoenix, Arizona.
Courtesy of Waymo
Waymo announced Tuesday that it is offering accounts for teens ages 14 to 17, starting in Phoenix.
The Alphabet-owned company said that, beginning Tuesday, parents in Phoenix can use their Waymo accounts “to invite their teen into the program, pairing them together.” Once their account is activated, teens can hail fully autonomous rides.
Previously, users were required to be at least 18 years old to sign up for a Waymo account, but the age range expansion comes as the company seeks to increase ridership amid a broader expansion of its ride-hailing service across U.S. cities. Alphabet has also been under pressure to monetize AI products amid increased competition and economic headwinds.
Waymo said it will offer “specially-trained Rider Support agents” during rides hailed by teens and loop in parents if needed. Teens can also share their trip status with their parents for real-time updates on their progress, and parents receive all ride receipts.
Teen accounts are initially only being offered to riders in the metro Phoenix area. Teen accounts will expand to more markets outside California where the Waymo app is available in the future, a spokesperson said.
Waymo’s expansion to teens follows a similar move by Uber, which launched teen accounts in 2023. Waymo, which has partnerships with Uber in multiple markets, said it “may consider enabling access for teens through our network partners in the future.”
Already, Waymo provides more than 250,000 paid trips each week across Phoenix, the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Austin, Texas, and the company is preparing to bring autonomous rides to Miami and Washington, D.C., in 2026.
In June, Waymo announced that it plans to manually drive vehicles in New York, marking the first step toward potentially cracking the largest U.S. city. Waymo said it applied for a permit with the New York City Department of Transportation to operate autonomously with a trained specialist behind the wheel in Manhattan.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives at the White House to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump on Feb. 13, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Andrew Harnik | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Elon Musk’s X said Tuesday that the Indian government ordered the company to block 2,355 accounts, including Reuters, in the country.
“The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology demanded immediate action- within one hour- without providing justification, and required the accounts to remain blocked until further notice,” X’s global government affairs account posted.
The main Reuters account, along with ReutersWorld, was blocked Saturday for users in India, the news service said. Screenshots showed the message “Account withheld @Reuters has been withheld in IN in response to a legal demand.”
The Indian government’s Press Information Bureau told Reuters that no government agency had required blocking the account and said it was working with X to resolve the issue. The accounts were restored on Sunday.
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The statement by X on Tuesday is the latest development in an ongoing censorship legal battle between Musk’s social media site and the Indian government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
X sued Modi’s government in March, accusing India’s IT ministry of unlawfully expanding online censorship to allow the easier removal of content.
Musk often refers to himself as a free speech absolutist and has said his takeover of Twitter was partly due to what he viewed as the unfair restriction of conservative views and voices.
The Tesla CEO swiftly made changes to moderation after he acquired the site, which he later renamed to X.
Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev says it’s not “entirely relevant” that the trading platform’s so-called tokenized shares of OpenAI and SpaceX aren’t technically equity in the companies.
It comes after OpenAI raised concerns about the product, which is designed to give users in the European Union exposure to various U.S. stocks — including private companies, which are less liquid than publicly listed firms.
OpenAI last week warned that Robinhood’s stock tokens do not represent equity in the company and said in a post on X that, “any transfer of OpenAI equity requires our approval — we did not approve any transfer.”
Robinhood says its OpenAI stock tokens are “enabled by Robinhood’s ownership stake in a special purpose vehicle.”
“It is true that these are not technically equity,” Tenev, who co-founded Robinhood in 2013 with fellow entrepreneur Baiju Bhatt, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” Tuesday, echoing his initial response to OpenAI’s concerns.
Tenev said that OpenAI’s complex company structure enables institutional investors to gain exposure to the company through “various instruments, like equity upon the event of a conversion to a for-profit at a later date.”
OpenAI was initially founded as a non-profit organization. However, it has since evolved to include a for-profit entity, which is owned by the non-profit.
“In and of itself, I don’t think it’s entirely relevant that it’s not technically an equity instrument,” he said. “What’s important is that retail customers have an opportunity to get exposure to this asset” — even if it’s a private company — due to the disruptive nature of AI, he added.
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On Monday, the Bank of Lithuania, which is Robinhood’s lead authority in the European Union, told CNBC it was “awaiting clarifications” regarding the structure of the company’s stock tokens following OpenAI’s statement last week.
“Only after receiving and evaluating this information will we be able to assess the legality and compliance of these specific instruments,” Bank of Lithuania spokesman Giedrius Šniukas told CNBC. “The information for investors must be provided in clear, fair, and non-misleading language.”
Tenev said in response to the Lithuanian regulator’s comments that Robinhood is “happy to continue to answer questions from our regulators.”
“Since this is a new thing, regulators are going to want to look at it, and we’ve built this program in a way that we believe will withstand scrutiny — and we expect to be scrutinized as a large, innovative player in this space,” he told CNBC.