Apple Intelligence makes me want to leave my iPhone behind and buy a dumb phone

Apple's AI announcement has made me question whether I want to be part of the AI future

(Credit: The Shortcut)

• 🤖 Apple is bringing AI to its users whether they like it or not

• 🤔 Apple Intelligence will make your phone more “useful and relevant”

• 😤 But I couldn’t care less about AI, and think it’s only going to make things worse

• 👋 It makes me think I should pick up a dumb phone and get back to basics

Apple revealed its grand plan for AI during WWDC 2024, and it’s cleverly called “Apple Intelligence”. Soon, you’ll be able to harness the power of artificial intelligence to make using your Apple devices more “useful and relevant”. But it’s left me contemplating whether I should leave Apple’s ecosystem altogether.

That’s probably a dramatic thing to say – especially as I’m practically locked in at this point. I own an iPhone, iMac, Apple Watch, Apple TV 4K, AirPods Pro, and two HomePod minis. It would be a costly endeavor if I was to cut ties now.

However, seeing Apple’s vision for AI just left me feeling exhausted and wanting to retreat to a simpler time. A “dumb phone” – one that’s stripped back to basics – has never seemed so appealing, or at least a device that will simply let me turn off all the AI slop that I never asked for.

I’ve managed to avoid the avalanche of AI whenever possible so far, despite it being shoved down our throats by every company out there. As impressive as it can be, it still seems like a time-saving tool at best and a lazy, unimaginative, soulless shortcut at worst.

Funnily enough, I don’t sit at my desk every day thinking of banal questions that need answering. I’ve also never felt the need to create a picture based on a prompt so I can send it to my friend or family member. Perhaps I’m in the minority.

Can AI be useful? Absolutely. But did it need to be integrated into the iPhone just to help me adjust the tone of an email? Or make Siri better at setting a timer when I’m cooking? No. It just seems like it’s trying to answer a question no one asked.

I don’t care if I’ve become the Principal Skinner meme. AI isn’t for me. (Credit: The Shortcut)

Speaking of questions, there’s also the real concern that the information AI feeds back to the user can be inaccurate like Google recommending putting glue on pizza. Google is no longer a reliable source of information like it used to be, as its tools canvas the internet and end up delivering a hodgepodge of an answer or pushing whatever the popular ideology is at the time.

That’s not to say I’m totally against AI. I just prefer it when it works silently behind the scenes to benefit the consumer without getting in the way. Whether that’s providing better performance in video games by using Nvidia’s DLSS technology, improving real-time translations, or removing background noise when on the phone – that’s the sort of thing I can get behind.

But all of the additions Apple is bringing with Apple Intelligence just seem like they’ll get in my way, stifle any genuine creativity, and take away user agency. Take the below example.

Can’t be bothered to entertain your child? ChatGPT has you covered. (Credit: Apple)

Apple includes in its lengthy post about AI how you can create a bedtime story for a six-year-old girl named Annie, using various text prompts. Why do we need AI for that? Are parents incapable of using their imagination these days? Can they not pick up a children’s book – which is full of pictures and has helped children learn how to read for generations – without having to turn to ChatGPT to generate a story? Does Annie need the story to be about her specifically for it to be enjoyable?

And then there’s the privacy concerns. Apple swears that Apple Intelligence will set a new standard for privacy in AI, but we’ve already seen reports in the past of companies scraping users' data to improve their chat models and tools without users’ consent. Elon Musk has already condemned Apple’s partnership with OpenAI, but it seems like iPhone, iPad, and iMac owners will have no choice but to like it or lump it.

More people have been searching dumb phones recently. (Credit: The Shortcut)

The tidal wave of AI culminates in a growing desire to replace my iPhone with a dumb phone. And judging by Google Trends, I might not be the only one. I use my phone for photos, messaging, calls, playing the odd game, and scrolling through social media – that’s about it. I’d rather own a phone that lets me continue to use it how I like, without any AI stepping in to forcibly try and make my life easier.

Life shouldn’t always be as simple as clicking a button and letting an AI chatbot handle things. We shouldn’t need machine learning to teach us how to deliver an email without sounding rude, and we definitely don’t need it to help us create “art” that will never hang in any gallery worth its salt. Humans have done just fine without any of that for millennia, and long may that continue.

Adam Vjestica is The Shortcut’s Senior Editor. Formerly TechRadar’s Gaming Hardware Editor, Adam has also worked at Nintendo of Europe as a Content Marketing Editor, where he helped launch the Nintendo Switch. Follow him on X @ItsMrProducts.