Apple's Intelligence's free ChatGPT upgrade may come sooner than expected with a Visual Intelligence bonus

Free upgrades coming soon

News By John-Anthony Disotto published 14 October 2024

Apple Intelligence’s ChatGPT integration and its iPhone 16 exclusive feature, Visual Intelligence, could come sooner than expected as part of iOS 18.2.

While the well-connected Mark Gurman already hinted that ChatGPT integration would arrive in iOS 18.2, we had no info on Visual Intelligence’s arrival past Apple’s “later this year” promise. This new info, found by Aaron Perris on X, shows references to “Siri with ChatGPT” and “Visual Intelligence” found in Apple's code.

ChatGPT integration will enable you to access the chatbot via Siri on the newest models among the best iPhones, while Visual Intelligence takes full advantage of the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro’s Camera Control so you can snap images and search for results using AI – think of it as Apple’s Google Lens competitor.

Based on this info, it’s expected that both free Apple Intelligence upgrades could arrive as part of iOS 18.2 which should be entering beta shortly. This comes at an exciting time for Apple users as we get closer to October 28th, iOS 18.1 and Apple Intelligence’s leaked release date.

Apple Intelligence’s ChatGPT integration

ChatGPT is the most popular AI tool in the world, and having it incorporated into Siri is going to be a major addition to the iPhone. Siri’s big Apple Intelligence upgrade won’t arrive until 2025, but ChatGPT integration is a nice stop-gap until then. You’ll be able to ask Siri to contact ChatGPT’s servers to create meal plans, summarize articles, and even write code.

The other feature here, Visual Intelligence, is the iPhone 16’s exclusive Apple Intelligence feature, and lets you use Apple AI to search for anything you can see. You’ll be able to simply snap a photo with Camera Control, the new side button, and Apple Intelligence will give you information about what you’re looking at. Want to know a restaurant’s opening times? You got it! How about a dog’s breed? Yep, it can do that too.

While this new information doesn’t confirm the inclusion of Visual Intelligence and ChatGPT integration in iOS 18.2, it does make it incredibly likely. So if you’ve read our iPhone 16 review and are waiting patiently for Visual Intelligence, you might just be in luck sooner rather than later.

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