Apple said that the AI features will be turned on by default during the iPhone onboarding process while updating to iOS 18.3.
Apple Intelligence features were first rolled out to supported devices with iOS 18.1 update
Photo Credit: Apple
Apple Intelligence will be enabled by default on iPhone with the upcoming iOS 18.3 update. Apple announced the change with the iOS 18.3 Release Candidate (RC), which rolled out to beta users on Tuesday. Till now, users were asked whether they would like to enable the artificial intelligence (AI) features or not; this, however, will not be the case going forward. Notably, the company is planning the same for iPad and Mac devices with their next updates.
In its iOS 18.3 RC release notes, the tech giant stated the new change, highlighting how users will not get to choose whether or not to enable Apple Intelligence when updating to iOS 18.3. This will only affect iPhone devices that currently support the AI features.
Apple said that during the installation process of the new update, Apple Intelligence will be enabled automatically. This means when the handset reboots, users will find all the AI features activated. However, this does not mean these features cannot be disabled. The tech giant added that users can navigate to the Apple Intelligence & Siri Settings panel and turn off the Apple Intelligence toggle to turn off the AI features on their device.
The new change is a departure from the iPhone maker's previous strategy which gave users the option to choose whether or not to use AI tools. That was likely being done as the company worked on fixing bugs and glitches and optimising Apple Intelligence. However, it appears that the tech giant is confident in its in-house AI suite and wants more users to adopt the technology.
However, the company did not mention whether Apple Intelligence will also be re-enabled for those users who had turned it on briefly in the past and then manually disabled it.
Notably, the iOS 18.3 update does not bring any major new features. However, it reportedly added several changes to the AI notification summaries feature that recently drew flak for generating erroneous summaries of news headlines.
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