When Apple Intelligence debuts this fall, visionOS 2 won’t be getting any of the new artificial intelligence features (AI) to use on the Vision Pro headset.
Apple allegedly suspended development work on a high-end Vision Pro successor, and now we learn that visionOS 2 won’t be getting any Apple Intelligence features?!? What’s up with that? It must be a nefarious scheme on Apple’s part to sell you the next Vision Pro, which will surely qualify for Apple Intelligence, right?
John Gruber, who runs Daring Fireball and sat down with Apple’s Craig Federighi and Greg Joswiak for a live episode of The Talk Show, has learned why visionOS 2 isn’t getting any Apple Intelligence features despite the Vision Pro using the M2 chip.
Why Apple Intelligence won’t run in Vision Pro
It apparently all comes down to the Neural Engine, a highly specialized coprocessor in Apple silicon tailored to executing machine learning and artificial intelligence tasks at speeds and power consumption unmatched by the CPU or GPU.
“Vision Pro is already making significant use of the M2’s Neural Engine to supplement the R1 chip for real-time processing purposes — occlusion and object detection, things like that,” Gruber wrote on Daring Fireball.
The R1 is a custom processor responsible for the immersive augmented reality experience on the $3500 headset. It collects and processes real-time data from Vision Pro’s twelve onboard cameras, five sensors and six microphones.
“With M-series-equipped Macs and iPads, the Neural Engine is basically sitting there, fully available for Apple Intelligence features.” Gruber continued. “With the Vision Pro, it’s already being used.” He learned this from “well-informed little birdies.”
visionOS 2 is still a work in progress
Moreover, as Gruber points out, visionOS is a nascent new platform. Apple is currently busy fixing teething issues and adding missing fundamentals such as rearranging and organizing apps in the Home view.
“VisionOS 2 isn’t even getting features like Math Notes,” Gruber said. Math Notes isn’t under the Apple Intelligence umbrella although this feature leverages artificial intelligence. Math Notes brings proper mathematical notation to the Notes app, instantly solving formulas and equations entered while typing.
Our take: Vision Pro will eventually get Apple Intelligence
It’s a sound explanation. Gruber isn’t known as an Apple scoop machine but he does have very high-quality sources within Apple who unofficially feed him reliable info.
The Vision Pro meets the minimum system requirements for Apple Intelligence (Apple M1 for iPad/Mac and the A17 Pro for iPhone with at least 8GB of unified memory) because the headset is powered by the M2 chip with 16GB of RAM.
This begs an interesting question: Will a Vision Pro successor support Apple Intelligence? It’ll be odd if the answer to this questions turns out to be a “no.” That probably won’t happen though Apple ought to give the R1 its own Neural Engine so that the main CPU’s Neural Engine remains solely dedicated to Apple Intelligence.