Apple Intelligence was announced almost a year ago. While it’s still in beta and most features have only been available for about six months, it’s nowhere near where it should be. With OpenAI, Google, and many other competitors focusing on AI agents, rumors suggest it will still take Apple at least a couple of years to deliver the true iPhone AI agent we’ve been hoping for.
That’s why it’s so interesting to see someone developing a free, open-source project on GitHub. According to developer Rounak Jan, he created this iPhone AI agent in 2024 during OpenAI’s hackathon.
With the project now available, Jan added GPT-4.1 capabilities to this iPhone AI agent, which can use the iPhone much like any of us would. First spotted by 9to5Mac, some of the ways you can use this technology include:
- Take a new selfie and send it to Person X with a haiku about the weekend
- Download the app A from the App Store
- Send a message to Person X: My flight is DL 1715, and call an Uber X to SFO
- Open Control Center and enable the torch
These demos were also shown in the YouTube video below, and this is pretty much how you’d expect an iPhone AI agent to work.
While Apple is rumored to offer developers some of its models to use in their apps, don’t expect this level of control just yet. Jan can only use these features because this is an Xcode project, which means he can test it on his iPhone but can’t offer it as a standalone app, for example.
The iPhone AI agent project actually brings more than I personally expect from Siri with on-screen awareness. In Jan’s case, GPT-4.1 is super responsive, and the Voice Mode works flawlessly.
Unfortunately, we’ll still need to wait at least a few years for Apple to provide this level of control. One can dream that the company might give OpenAI more access to the iPhone. Right now, ChatGPT can replace Siri using Apple Intelligence features, and rumors suggest Google Gemini is next. But this kind of control still hasn’t arrived.
That said, if you’re a developer, you can try Jan’s project by downloading it from GitHub.
