Apple integrates AI into iPhones

Apple CEO Tim Cook at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference 2024 in Cupertino, California on June 10, 2024. [Photo by AP Yonhap]

U.S. tech giant Apple Inc. unveiled new artificial intelligence (AI) features that operate major apps through voice commands on Monday (local time).

The company’s move comes amid the intensifying AI war among global players including Microsoft Corp., Google LLC, Meta Platforms Inc., and Samsung Electronics Co.

Apple held its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2024 on Monday at its headquarters in Cupertino, California, the United States, and unveiled its AI features, called Apple Intelligence.

This AI, created using generative AI similar to ChatGPT, is an upgrade of Apple‘s existing voice AI assistant, Siri, and allows users to change camera settings or add photos to their contact profiles with just a voice command.

In a separate development, OpenAI Inc.’s interactive chatbot, ChatGPT, which has led the global boom in generative AI, is also seeing a rapid increase in users in South Korea.

According to market tracker Wiseapp Retail Goods, a sample survey of Korean smartphone users of both Android and iOS showed that there were 3.15 million ChatGPT mobile app users in May 2024, up 34 percent from 2.35 million users in April.

This means that about 6 percent of the 51.2 million smartphone users in Korea use ChatGPT.

The increase in users is believed to be due to the release of the GPT-4o model last month, which features an improved user interface and added voice conversation capabilities.

As of May, ChatGPT app users in Korea were 60.4 percent male and 39.6 percent female. By age group, those in their 20s and 30s accounted for 52 percent of the total users.

The usage time and new installations of the ChatGPT app also saw significant growth in the country.

According to MOBILEINDEX, the total usage time for ChatGPT was 739,332 hours in May, a 55.8 percent increase from April’s 474,668 hours.

New app installations in May were 404,570, a 47.9 percent increase from April. In the first week of June, new installations came to 113,879.