Apple Intelligence and the Digital Divide

Last night I attempted to watch the WWDC conference and failed. This wasn't a technical issue. The issue was a cultural one. I find the show to be too kitschy for me. From the pretending to leap out of a plane to the tone of their conversation, it's just unwatchable for me, with European sensibilities.

Apple came out with Apple Intelligence which, at face value, is fantastic. I say at face value because it won't work on Intel devices, and it won't work on devices that came out before the iPhone 15. This means that almost all Apple users will be isolated from Apple Intelligence instead they fork out thousands of francs for phones, laptops and desktops.

## Planned Obsolecence

All Pre-M1 macs are now being made obsolete and all pre-iPhone 15s are being made obsolete. In an article they wrote that Apple intelligence would be available to billions of decides, but that's false advertising. It will be available to those that upgraded their laptops in the last four years, at least.

> The company says the AI features will be available only on the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max and iPads or Macs with M1 or later chips, and only when their language is set to English.
[Source](https://www.theverge.com/2024/6/10/24175405/wwdc-apple-ai-news-features-ios-18-macos-15-iphone-ipad-mac)

None of my hardware will "benefit" from Apple "Intelligence".

## Already offered by other services

We have Gemini, ChatGPT and Copilot to name just three AI models. If we look further we have various itterations of Ollama that we can install and run on our own machines, without paying for Apple products. Apple Intelligence might be better integrated than the other options, and run locally but it also has a much higher barrier to entry. We need new, expensive hardware, even to consider playing with Apple Intelligence.

## Phone and Laptop Upgrade
[Wired and logic imply that Apple Intelligence is limited to the devices its limited to, to encourage us to buy new devices](https://www.wired.com/story/ai-is-apples-best-shot-at-getting-you-to-upgrade-your-phone/) but this won't work. I use the SE for two reasons. It's small, and it's cheaper than the alternative phones. It fits into my pocket, and my hand with ease. Other phones are like holding slates of rock. They're heavy slabs.

Yesterday I was watching an episode of House and I noticed the old mac book pro lying on a desk, with all the ports that old macs had. The problem with new macs is that they cost a lot, and their number and diversity of ports is limited. You can't upgrade the HD or RAM yourself so to get a machine with reasonable specs you need to spend hundreds more to get it specced as you like. I am not ready to pay that extra cost.

The point is that if they want their phones and laptops to sell better, they need to give us better laptops and phones. Apple Intelligence is not a buying argument for me.

## And Finally

What makes Apple Intelligence Unique is not that it offers anything new. What differentiates it from other solutions is that it will be integrated within Apple Apps, and run locally on new phones, laptops and more. In theory this makes it more secure. Another key difference is that with Apple "Users will need to opt in explicitly before engaging with external AI models, like those offered by OpenAI." ([Source](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/article/2024/jun/10/apple-ai-product-launch))

As I read the Guardian article I began to think "Apple Intelligence is Ollama for non self-hosters". I recognise several similar values.