Some iOS 18 AI features might be limited to the iPhone 16 Pro models

It’s hardly breaking news that the next high-end iPhones will have a new processor that’s faster and more capable than the current A17 Pro. But a new rumor claims it will have a new design that’s specifically geared toward AI applications.

According to Haitong International Tech Research analyst Jeff Pu (via 9to5Mac), there is “growing demand” for Apple’s A18 chip. That’s not a surprise, as Apple is expected to release two versions of its iPhone chip for the first time, with the A18 joining the A18 Pro. That means Apple will be making twice as many chips this year compared to the last two cycles, so it makes sense to start production earlier than usual.

More interesting is Pu’s note about Apple’s new process. As he explains, Apple’s A18 Pro will “feature a larger die area compared to A17 Pro,” which means it will have a lower wafer yield. (Apple never officially announced the dies on the A17 Pro but pre-launch rumors claimed it would feature up to four, supporting 10 compute cores each.) Pu notes that the chip will have a 6-core GPU like the A17 Pro. The iPhone 16 Pro models are also rumored to start at 256GB of storage to run AI features.

Pu says the large die area “could be a trend for edge AI computing,” which runs algorithms on the device’s neural networks rather than the cloud. According to Nvidia, edge AI is different from cloud AI “because the computation is done near the user at the edge of the network, close to where the data is located, rather than centrally in a cloud computing facility or private data center.”

As such, some of the AI features expected in iOS 18 could require an iPhone 16 Pro or Pro Max due to the computing power provided by the A18 Pro chip. Google did the same thing with Gemini Nano, its “most efficient model built for on-device tasks,” which requires the Google Tensor G3 chip that’s exclusive to the Pixel 8 Pro. 

Apple will likely unveil some AI features in iOS 18 at WWDC. However, any features related to the A18 Pro chip in the iPhone 16 Pro phones won’t be announced until the fall.

Author: Michael Simon, Executive Editor