When Apple said Genmoji would come by the end of the year, they weren’t kidding. But it’s here now. We might as well embrace it.
Apple Intelligence
Apple Intelligence now supports more languages since the last time we looked at it. We’re happy to see so this many languages for writing tools. I thought I saw an option for ChatGPT, which has since disappeared.
ChatGPT
It’s a glitch because it keeps disappearing randomly. I don’t like that this is already turned on, but I don’t use Siri as a general rule, and you can always turn it off. I like that accounts are optional. It’s interesting that using a ChatGPT account seems safer than not using it. Your requests when you use an account are anonymous, and they don’t get used for training OpenAI models. But then it goes on to say that your requests are subject to OpenAI policies. Now it depends on your settings whether OpenAI uses your requests to train their models. That is a huge contradiction in a single setup attempt.
When you’re using a free account, you can easily upgrade to the paid version. Now, let’s see how it works. The colourful keyboard is kind of nice.
Initially, I thought that I would dislike ChatGPT on the iPad, but integrating it with Apple Notes and other apps makes it a lot more useful. At least you don’t have to search in a different app, then bring it here. It is still very buggy, though. And even though it is handy, it is missing a lot of features that I’d need as a writer to use it effectively. Perhaps if Apple brought it all the features we get with the app, that would certainly be a huge game changer. A few things are still a bit worrying, though. We didn’t see the options mentioned that determine whether or not OpenAI uses our data. So it feels like we actually don’t have our control over that. Otherwise, we’d have a setting for it, no?
Bugs
The ChatGPT tab has disappeared, again, but it is still working on my iPad. I can’t help but feel trapped. Worst implementation of a new feature we’ve seen from Apple in a while. I am even starting to dislike iPadOS 18 because it is so buggy. Especially for Apple Notes; even macOS Sequoia has been a nightmare. Apple Notes just keeps crashing, Apple Intelligence not responding at times. If I have to keep rebooting or restarting my device to use it, that becomes a huge inconvenience. All these AI features are useless if they make us hate using the iPad. It’s starting to feel like the discomfort we felt updating from Windows 7 to 8.
Genmoji and Image wand
Image creation takes a while, apparently. Your iPad has to download them, then you can start using them. So, I waited, and ten minutes later, my first attempt failed. But I am not one to give up that easily. So, I tried again and again. Then I learnt that images with people are not supported. So, keep your prompts short and add them to modify the image. What is this?
I tried my luck with the image wand. I still have to describe the image!? See why I feel AI just wastes time. Imagine if I was in the middle of some serious work and needed that image. But it recognised the hut! A very basic concept that is not relevant to anything I do whatsoever. Disappointed.
There’s still a lot of work that needs to be done to make this feature more useful. Or, maybe I am just taking it too seriously. Apple did demo this with a cooking cat, so advanced biology and architecture are too much to ask for. I was hoping it could save me the pain of drawing (since I suck at it); but not just yet. For those that are a little more laid back, and like having fun on the iPad… these are probably exciting and cool updates. I use the iPad for work, and in a professional setup; this feels like child’s play.
