personal tech

iBiz might not win the AI race, but analysts say it's focusing on features people may actually use

Apple says that its next-gen operating system will allow users to update their weak and compromised passwords with a single tap.

Upgrades coming to iOS 27, announced at Tim Cook’s last Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) this week, introduce a significant change to the way users manage their passwords.

“Building on its ability to alert users about weak and compromised passwords, Passwords can now automatically fix these for users with just a tap,” Apple said on Monday. 

“Using Apple Intelligence and Safari to agentically take action on a user’s behalf, Passwords securely navigates through websites to sign in and upgrade their accounts to strong passwords.”

The iGadget-maker’s existing password manager already flags passwords that are known to be included in prior data breaches, checking whether they appear in known data leaks.

However, current Passwords still requires users to update affected accounts themselves and does not offer a way to change multiple compromised credentials at once.

Selecting one of those alerts typically takes users to the relevant account page, where they must complete the password change manually.

The new update is designed to remove much of that legwork, with iOS 27 automatically navigating supported websites and updating eligible accounts to stronger passwords after user approval.

Of course, in the very brief section of the video in which the new capability was announced, the feature worked flawlessly. In practice, however, it remains to be seen how effective Passwords is at agentically navigating different websites’ login processes on behalf of users, especially if MFA is also set up on the account.

And for those of you who remember a story The Register covered earlier this year about the (in)security of AI-generated passwords, fret not.

Apple’s Passwords app generates solid passwords by default – strings that, according to NordPass’ online password checker, are “strong” and would take centuries to crack.

Security company Irregular’s research from February looked at scenarios where users were querying LLM chatbots for password ideas, rather than looking at those generated by purpose-built password managers.

Siri state of affairs

As predicted by many, this year’s WWDC put Siri, now known as Siri AI, front and center as Apple looks to deliver on its promises made two years ago.

It announced Apple Intelligence in 2024, but the offering has underdelivered on pretty much every count.

Analysts who spoke to The Register after the event on Monday were optimistic about what they saw on the AI front, but described Apple’s ability to deliver value for developers and users on its second roll of the dice as a credibility test.

The company announced a wide range of small AI-enabled upgrades coming soon to iOS 27, powered by Apple's Foundation Models, developed in collaboration with Google and its Gemini technology, in addition to the agentic password-fixing tease.

Individually, these features, such as enabling users to create shortcuts or Safari extensions by prompting Apple Intelligence using natural language, and Safari’s Notify Me, which allows users to monitor specific web pages for updates, are not revolutionary.

They’re also not the type of features that are poised to set the AI industry alight. But for some, winning the AI race is less about being first to market with the biggest, baddest model; it’s about using AI in the most useful way.

"Rebuilt from the ground up, Apple is trying to make AI feel native, useful, and invisible across the devices people already use every day," said Francisco Jeronimo, IDC VP of client devices.

"This matters because the winning AI experience for consumers will not be the loudest or most technically complex. It will be the one that understands context, respects privacy, works reliably across apps, and reduces friction without forcing users to change behaviour."

Apple’s iOS 27 will launch to the wider public in the fall, while devs can get their hands on the beta version now.

This won’t come with the new dedicated Siri AI app, though. You’ll have to join a waiting list for that one. ®