Apple says that AI will be a cornerstone feature on upcoming iPhones

While some tech company’s have a penchant for talking about upcoming products and features several months ahead of time, Apple has historically taken a diametrically opposed approach. If anything, Apple famously goes the extra mile to ensure that tantalizing details about upcoming products remain securely guarded until Apple itself is ready to make an announcement. Though Apple’s efforts sometimes fall flat — with the iPhone X debacle being a prime example — Apple’s obsession with product secrecy is arguably unrivaled throughout the tech industry.

That said, Apple isn’t afraid to talk about the future of technology in a broad sense. Indeed, over the past few months we’ve seen Tim Cook talk effusively about the power and potential of augmented reality. More recently, Apple executive Jeff Williams intimated that artificial intelligence will be a cornerstone feature for upcoming Apple products, including the iPhone and the Apple Watch.

While speaking at a 30 year anniversary event at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Reuters reports that Williams shared a few thoughts on the future of AI as it relates to the mobile space.

“I think we’re at an inflection point, with on-device computing, coupled with the potential of AI, to really change the world,” Williams said.

Apple’s increased interest in AI has been impossible to ignore in recent years. While some manifestations of Apple’s work on AI have been small — such as on-device photo recognition on the iOS Photos app — others, like the upcoming Face ID feature on the iPhone X, may prove to be complete game-changers.

“We think that the frameworks that we’ve got, the ‘neural engines’ we’ve put in the phone, in the watch,” Williams explained, “we do view that as a huge piece of the future, we believe these frameworks will allow developers to create apps that will do more and more in this space, so we think the phone is a major platform.”