Apple’s Vision for AI: Integrating Intelligence into Mixed-Reality Headset

Apple is actively working on integrating AI capabilities into its Vision Pro mixed-reality headset, but these features are not expected to be available this year.

Key details on Apple’s AI plans for Vision Pro: Apple unveiled its Apple Intelligence AI product earlier this month with a promise to bring the technology to iPhone, iPad, and Mac; however, it now appears the company is also looking to incorporate AI features into the Vision Pro headset:

• The Vision Pro’s 16GB of memory should be sufficient to run AI capabilities on the device.
• Features like notification prioritization, writing tools, an OpenAI chatbot, and the new AI-powered Siri would make sense on the headset, especially given Apple’s positioning of Vision Pro as a productivity and computing device.
• Implementing AI on Vision Pro likely won’t be too difficult since the headset runs a variant of the existing AI-enabled iPadOS software.
• The main challenge will be optimizing the AI features to work well within the headset’s mixed-reality environment.

Vision Pro development and release timeline: While Apple is working on AI for Vision Pro, the company recently paused development of the headset’s second generation to focus on creating a less expensive version:

• The current Vision Pro is priced at $3,500, while the planned lower-cost model is expected to sell for around $1,500.
• A more affordable Vision Pro would make the headset accessible to more consumers and allow it to better compete with rivals like the Meta Quest.

So in summary, Apple does have ambitions to bring its new AI capabilities to the Vision Pro mixed-reality headset, but it will take some time to optimize the technology for that device. In the nearer term, Apple’s focus seems to be on developing a cheaper Vision Pro model to make its headset more competitive and mainstream following the first generation’s launch.