Apple Testing Upgraded Safari with New AI-Driven Tools and Features
TapTechNews May 26th news, according to AppleInsider, Apple is testing an upgraded version of Safari browser, which includes interface optimization, advanced content blocking features and a new tool named "Smart Search" driven by artificial intelligence.
It is reported that the software is expected to be officially released as Safari 18 later in 2024 and is currently being evaluated along with the internal version of the next-generation Apple operating system update (iOS 18 and macOS 15). If all the new features can pass the test, users will welcome a brand new user interface (UI) to customize the common page control functions, as well as the "web eraser" function and the artificial intelligence-driven content summary tool.
Engineers evaluating the latest version of Safari 18 can find the new page control menu switch in the browser address bar. It is reported that this menu integrates all the old and new page control tools and provides quick access entries, including the new "Smart Search" function of the browser.
This function is not automatically enabled in the test version of Safari 18 and needs to be manually activated by the user from the page control menu. It is speculated that once enabled, the tool will use Apple's on-device artificial intelligence technology (especially the Ajax language learning model) to identify the topics and key words in the web page and summarize the content based on this.
In selecting key words, Apple's LLM software will identify the part of the sentence that provides an explanation or description of the structure of the object (depending on the text content). The repeated words and key sentences in the text will be identified as the text topic.
Also, a function named "Web Eraser" can be found in the new page control menu, and Apple is testing it. According to people familiar with the function, just as its name implies, it allows users to remove or erase specific parts of the web page.
The function is expected to be built on Safari's existing privacy protection features, allowing users to delete unwanted content from any web page they choose. Users can easily "erase" banner ads, images, text, and even entire page sections.
It is said that the erased effect will remain, meaning that even if the tab or window is closed, Safari will remember these changes. When accessing a web page that has been erased before, Safari will notify the user that the web page has been modified to reflect the changes they have made. The browser will also allow users to choose to restore the changes and restore the web page to its original unmodified state.
At the same time, Apple is also developing a more powerful visual search function and plans to integrate it sometime in 2025. This function will allow users to obtain information about consumer goods when browsing images. According to people familiar with the tool, it is similar to the " ;Visual Lookup" function, through which Siri can identify plants, pets and landmarks in photos.
Visual search can be implemented as a system-level function. Therefore, users can directly use visual search in Safari by selecting images instead of showing the search results in the photo application.
TapTechNews needs to point out that not all functions can be finally released. As we all know, Apple will postpone or completely cancel some functions. It is expected that Apple will announce a number of AI-related enhancements for iOS 18 and macOS 15 at the annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on June 10th.