Report: iOS 18 and macOS 15 to feature ‘Project Greymatter’ AI tools, AI image editing, and more

A new report from AppleInsider claims to have inside info about the upcoming AI capabilities of iOS 18 and macOS 15. It mostly jibes with previous reports and rumors, though there are some new specific claims worth mentioning.

For example, there’s Project Greymatter, the code name for a host of AI capabilities said to be coming to iOS 18 and macOS 15. Greymatter focuses on using AI for “practical benefits” to users of Apple’s operating system. For example, it’s claimed you’ll be able to ask Siri to catch you up on recent notifications and get a summary of them. You’ll be able to auto-generate text replies to messages or emails, too.

Siri is said to be the focal point of a lot of enhancements. Siri is expected to get much richer and more personal responses, through a “new smart response framework as well as Apple’s on-device LLM.” This means Siri will take into account people, companies, calendar events, locations, dates, and more–using all the data on your iPhone to know you better and craft responses that fit into your own actual life.

The voice transcription and text summarization features coming to the Notes app will likely be available with Siri, as well.

AppleInsider says that Apple has been testing “more natural” Siri voices and text-to-speech improvements, so it should sound less robotic and more emotive.

If you have a bunch of Apple devices, you’ll appreciate the ability to use Siri to control media playback and volume across devices, though that feature is not expected until later this year.

Photo editing is a core area in which Apple intends to use advanced AI. The “Retouch” tool is said to be replaced by a “Clean up” tool that can remove objects, as similar tools do in other popular photo editing applications.

Apple is said to have an internal tool called “Generative Playground” that can use gen-AI to create and edit images, and which is integrated with Messages through an app extension. In Apple’s test environments, AppleInsider claims, it’s possible to generate an image using AI and send it off through iMessage. This is an internal tool but Apple could have a similar feature in the works for end users, though this may be referring to the generative emoji feature. AI image generation is a thorny area and Apple will probably not want to ship anything until it has gone through some strict safety checks.

AppleInsider’s report corroborates previous reports about the Notes app; that it will feature voice recording, audio transcription, and support math equations with the ability to solve formulae and generate graphs.

The visionOS 2 update for Apple Vision Pro will get a few AI enhancements, too, including better voice control and smart replies in Messages, Mail, and Siri.

We’ll learn a lot more about Apple’s AI ambitions in just a few weeks when WWDC kicks off on June 10.

Author: Jason Cross, Senior Editor