Apple has a big week coming up. After all, WWDC 2025 kicks off on Monday with Apple’s big annual keynote. With rumors pointing to a revamped iOS 26 design and name, I think it’s important to understand how far the company has come (or not) in the past year with its Apple Intelligence platform.
Full of criticism and controversy, the Apple Intelligence platform was released with iOS 18.1 almost a month and a half after the company launched the iPhone 16. With underwhelming features including Writing Tools, priority notifications, and a half-baked Clean Up Tool, Apple’s AI platform was supposed to look a bit better once Cupertino released iOS 18.2 with Genmoji and ChatGPT integration by the end of 2024.
That wasn’t the case. Many users complained about Genmoji generation decisions and the Clean Up Tool not working as expected. While Cupertino was able to improve these AI features by continuing to work on its models in the months following their original release, they still don’t offer the same level of precision as competitors.
Specifically for the Clean Up Tool, Apple says this feature can “identify and remove distracting objects in the background of a photo without accidentally altering the subject.” While Cupertino takes a thoughtful approach to how it handles AI editing tools, it still doesn’t compare to what Samsung offers, for example.
Still, I think the company has considerably improved this tool in iOS 18.5. Clean Up is now more reliable and better at identifying most people, objects, and pets in the background that you might want to remove from your photo. My issue with this simple Apple Intelligence task goes a bit further.
The most powerful iPhone still isn’t ready for AI editing tools
Apple’s iPhone 16 Pro features the company’s best smartphone chip, the A18 Pro. Built with second-generation 3-nanometer technology and featuring a new architecture with smaller, faster transistors, the A18 Pro delivers better efficiency than ever. The new 16-core Neural Engine is faster and more efficient than the previous generation.
Apple says a 17 percent increase in total system memory bandwidth — the highest ever in an iPhone — helps deliver amazing graphics. The bandwidth increase also benefits the 6-core GPU, which is up to 20 percent faster than the previous generation, driving graphics rendering for Apple Intelligence and better visuals for gaming.
Hardware-accelerated ray tracing is up to 2x faster, offering more realistic light sources and reflections. A new 6-core CPU is the fastest in a smartphone, with two performance cores and four efficiency cores that can run the same workload as the previous generation 15 percent faster while using 20 percent less power. Next-generation ML accelerators are optimized for Apple Intelligence and save power by handling high-efficiency, high-throughput, and low-latency computations on the CPU without engaging the Neural Engine.
Still, none of this matters when I try to use the Clean Up Tool on my iPhone 16 Pro Max. My first issue is that it requires an internet connection, which isn’t the case for Apple’s now-owned Photomator photo editor platform, and almost instantly, the iPhone display dims slightly.
It can be freezing cold or slightly hot, but one thing’s for sure: the Clean Up Tool will make my iPhone overheat in under 30 seconds. While I haven’t been using high-end Android smartphones that often, I’m pretty sure they don’t overheat this quickly, even without the same powerful processor or the “deep level of integration” Apple always touts.
So what’s next for the iPhone and Apple Intelligence?
Rumors so far suggest Apple will improve its current Apple Intelligence capabilities for the iPhone with iOS 26. If that’s the case, I hope the Clean Up Tool can start running locally. Or at least, it should start working more efficiently, so I don’t feel like the iPhone is overheating the moment I enable it.
Of course, I’ll probably be one of those Day 1 buyers looking forward to Apple’s iPhone 17 Pro Max with a third-generation TSMC 3nm chip, the upcoming A19 Pro, and hopefully better thermal management.
Only time will tell if the company can deliver those basic Apple Intelligence tasks at a satisfactory level. Looking at the past few years, it feels like Apple is doing a poor job with its best chips and software updates, so Cupertino has a lot to catch up on over the next six months.
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