Apple announces AI upgrade for Safari browser in the UK

Apple is getting ready to embrace the AI buzzword extensively, just like many others have been doing for some time now. A significant AI push is also on its way to Safari, the company’s web browser, this year, according to a recent report.
The upcoming version of Safari will be infused with AI technology and is expected to be launched alongside iOS 18, most likely at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June.
One of the key features in the new Safari will be Intelligent Search, which will utilize on-device AI to identify topics and key phrases within a web page that you’re viewing in order to provide a summary of its content. Apple’s Large Language Model (LLM) will identify sentences that explain or describe the structure of objects based on the text on the page. Additionally, repeating words and key phrases will be recognized as topics.
This update is seen as a response to ChatGPT, and Apple aims to deliver a more secure browsing experience on the device.
Another new feature, Web Eraser, will allow users to remove specific sections of web pages such as banner ads, images, text, or entire page sections with ease. These deletions will be persistent across sessions, as Safari will remember the changes even after the original tab or window has been closed.
Upon revisiting the same page, users will be informed that the page has been modified to reflect their desired changes. They will then have the option to revert the changes and restore the web page to its original state if desired.
While this may sound like a convoluted way of creating an ad blocker using the AI buzzword, it’s worth noting that ad blockers have existed before all this AI technology, so it will be interesting to see how this new feature plays out.
In addition to Intelligent Search and Web Eraser, the new Safari will also come with an updated user interface that includes a new page control list. This list will provide easy access to various options that were previously spread out across the UI. These options include zoom settings, privacy controls, content blocking options, in-page text search, browser mode, and extension shortcuts.
Looking ahead to next year, Apple plans to integrate a more powerful visual search feature into its browser, allowing users to find information about consumer products by browsing images. This feature is said to be similar to the Visual Lookup feature that enables Siri to identify plants, pets, and landmarks in photos.
While all these updates are currently in development, it’s important to keep in mind that Apple may delay their release or even cancel some altogether, as they have done with previous features in the past.
Source: GSMArena