The future of Apple technology was revealed at WWDC24 the future requires some hefty hardware. Apple introduced Apple Intelligence, its feature set in its operating systems that implement AI technology. Apple Intelligence is designed to do as much as it can on your device and will rely on cloud computing only when it needs to. And because AI tech is processor intensive, it means that the latest features will run only on certain devices.
Here are the hardware requirements for Apple Intelligence when it arrives later this year:
Apple AI iPhone requirements
- iPhone 15 Pro or later
Apple AI iPad requirements
- iPad Air, iPad Pro (M1, M2)
- iPad Pro (M4)
Apple AI Mac requirements
- MacBook Air/Pro (M1, M2, M3)
- iMac (M1, M3)
- Mac mini (M1, M2)
- Mac Studio (M1, M2)
- Mac Pro (M2)
What happens if your hardware does not meet the requirements?
Since these are the minimum requirements for using Apple’s AI features, we don’t know what happens if the hardware requirements have not been met. There are plenty of new features in iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS 15 that don’t rely on Apple Intelligence, so it’s likely that these features simply won’t be available on unsupported devices.
What about Apple Watch?
Apple didn’t mention Apple Watch in its keynote so that device won’t support Apple Intelligence.
Do users have to use the Apple Intelligence features?
It’s not clear whether the service is opt-out, though early reports claim it will be. However, Apple Intelligence is a separate features so users can simply ignore the features they don’t want to use.
Author: Roman Loyola, Senior Editor, Macworld
Roman is a Macworld Senior Editor with over 30 years of experience covering the tech industry, focusing on the Mac and other products in the Apple ecosystem. He is also the host of the Macworld Podcast. His career started at MacUser, where he received Apple certification as a repair technician (when Apple did that kind of thing). He's also worked for MacAddict, MacLife, and TechTV.