The Biggest Problem With Apple Intelligence Is That It Won't Run on the Best AI Device Ever Made

I've spent a lot of time thinking about Apple Intelligence over the past few weeks. I say thinking because you can't actually use any of the features Apple demonstrated during its WWDC keynote earlier this month. You can't create your own Genmoji or ask Siri to remind you when your mom's flight is supposed to arrive. You also can't look at a PDF and have Siri send it to ChatGPT to answer questions about whether you're allowed to have a pet lizard. But, all of those things are impressive demos, and I'm excited to try them once they are available. If they work the way Apple promises, your next iPhone is going to be a lot more interesting. Of course, we've seen a lot of impressive demos over the past year. What we haven't seen are any impressive products. The Humane Ai Pin is basically a flop. The Rabbit R1 is not just a failure, it's not even really an AI gadget, it turns out. To be fair, there have been some impressive features announced by Microsoft and Google, and ChatGPT is obviously a thing. Google's Magic Erase feature in its Photos app is both cool and practical. As far as devices that use AI to dramatically improve the way we interact with computers, however, there's basically nothing. That's a shame because a wearable device that you use to interact with a smart assistant capable of doing more than just set timers or showing you "results from the web," would be a step change in personal computing. That's the entire premise behind the Ai Pin and R1--create a device that serves as a way of accessing an always-present assistant that can interact with your own personal information and apps. The problem is, none of them work. They don't have access to your personal information, they don't have apps, and the hardware isn't up to the task. For example, the Ai Pin gets only a few hours of battery life--at best--and that's when it doesn't shut down because it's too hot. Do you know what gets incredible battery life and has very capable hardware? An Apple Watch. Look, I've been saying for a while now that the perfect AI wearable gadget is the Apple Watch. If I'm going to wear a device that I can interact with, the Apple Watch is already the right form factor--it just needs to be smarter. That's the entire premise of Apple Intelligence--make Siri smarter. The problem is, Apple Intelligence doesn't run on the Apple Watch. For that matter, it won't run on any but the most high-end recent iPhone. Even if you bought an iPhone 15 in the last year, you're out of luck. Presumably, anything with an iPhone 16 in the name will be capable of running Apple Intelligence, but there are like 1.5 billion iOS devices in the world, and most of them are not going to be able to run Apple Intelligence. For Apple's effort to be successful, that needs to change. One way is for the company to get a version of it running on the Watch. Or, at least, make it possible for your Watch to interact with a capable iPhone. After all, it's basically an accessory for your iPhone. It's a very capable accessory, but for most people, it's a way to get notifications or information from your iPhone, without having to actually use your iPhone. Which, to be honest, is great. But, it would be better if you could ask Siri a question on your Watch and it would either send the query to Apple's cloud service, or it would just feed the query to your iPhone. It's great that you'll be able to do all kinds of AI things on your iPhone, but the reason a wearable device seems so appealing is because it's more accessible. You don't have to pull out your iPhone just to ask a question or to get information. Imagine if you could just ask Siri, via your Watch, the question about, "What time does my mom's flight arrive?" Or "Will we have enough time to get from the airport to our dinner reservation?" Your Watch would interact with the services on your iPhone to find out when the flight is supposed to arrive, whether it's still on time or delayed, where and when you made a dinner reservation, and whether you'll be able to get there based on directions and current traffic conditions. Presumably, you'll be able to do most of that at some point on your iPhone, but Apple's real killer move would be to make all of this possible on the best AI device form factor--the Watch. EXPERT OPINION BY JASON ATEN, TECH COLUMNIST @JASONATEN