refi nements rather than marquee features or amazing inno-
vations. The most noteworthy iOS 13 feature is probably Dark
Mode. While Dark Mode’s new color palette may prove to be
popular, it’s hardly a revolutionary feature in my book.
Apple Is Way Behind Google in the AI
Race
Given that this is the thirteenth iteration of
iOS, it’s understandable that the update is a
refi nement of past versions. It’s unreasonable
to expect Apple to reinvent a mature operating
system each year. That being said, we are only scratching the
surface of the potential presented by artifi cial intelligence (AI),
and I was surprised by how few AI features iOS 13 included.
Apple is using AI to make Siri’s pronunciation more lifelike and
to intelligently display photos in the redesigned Photos app. But
those are relatively minor improvements relative to how aggres-
sive Google has been in applying AI to its Pixel phones.
One particularly impressive example is Google Duplex, an
AI assistant that can call a restaurant and make a reservation
on a user’s behalf. Google is still testing this feature with a
select group of Pixel users, but it’s still an incredibly impres-
sive technology. If you’ve never heard of Google Duplex, do
yourself a favor and look up Google’s demo on YouTube. The
AI assistant can interact seamlessly with a real human on
the phone and sounds eerily realistic. It even uses words like
“um” and “like” at appropriate moments.Google has also become a leader in applying AI to improve
the quality of photographs. Google Pixel has an impressive
feature called Night Sight, which uses AI to dramatically im-
prove low light photography, illuminating subjects that the eye
can barely see. Seeing this feature in action is amazing and
feels revolutionary. Apple occasionally saves a few software
updates for its fall product announcements, so it’s possible
that there’s more coming. But right now, Google is taking the
lead in applying AI to smartphones.WHAT DO APPLE’S LATEST
SOFTWARE RELEASES REVEAL
ABOUT THE COMPANY’S FUTURE?
BY DAVID AVERBACH
2
“WE ARE ONLY
SCRATCHING THE
SURFACE OF THE
POTENTIAL PRESENTED
BY ARTIFICIAL
INTELLIGENCE.”