Apple’s iOS 18 beta and Amazon’s AI assistant top Innovation Index

Welcome to the ZDNET Innovation Index, which identifies the most innovative technology developments of the past week and ranks the top four, based on votes from our panel of editors and experts. Our mission is to help you identify the trends that will have the biggest impact on the future.

Apple’s iOS 18 public beta topped the index this week, bringing to life many of the features that excited our editors and experts at WWDC last month. As expected, the features are subtle, customizable, and even fun, according to ZDNET editor Jason Hiner, who has been testing iOS 18 since the main event. Most notable are the new built-in passwords app and the creative freedom now attached to the look of the Home screen and Messages app. But what it offers is as remarkable as what it lacks. Significantly, the beta doesn’t include any of the Apple Intelligence features that many of us have been waiting to try. Especially as companies like Samsung roll out their own AI features, consumer standards for AI on personal devices could be changing rapidly by the time users can try Apple Intelligence on the iPhone.

Amazon comes in second for launching Rufus, its AI shopping assistant, as part of its Prime Day promotion. Working much like ChatGPT, Rufus helps Amazon shoppers navigate the frenzy that has been the e-commerce giant’s annual summer sale event. While the chatbot is a standard tech issue, Rufus marks another step in the shift toward personalized AI agents that integrate into every part of a consumer’s digital experience, even the most mundane.

Proton’s new AI writing assistant, Scribe, comes in third. The company, known for Proton mailits encrypted, privacy-focused email service, has stressed that Scribe won’t misuse your data because it isn’t trained on the contents of users’ inboxes. Built into Proton Mail, Scribe uses localized AI instead of going through the cloud, much like Apple Intelligence will. The tool aims to cater to those who want the productivity benefits of AI chatbots without the potential data insecurity. If it delivers, the release could mark a turning point in what has so far been a reluctant tradeoff between AI access and privacy loss, meaning more people will be more comfortable using chatbots.

The week concludes with Samsung’s Galaxy AI improvements, unveiled at Samsung Unpacked last week. As with Apple, these features aim to simplify and improve the basics of the device. However, according to ZDNET’s Kerry Wan, “AI features across all manufacturers are pretty much the same in terms of functionality and usability, whether it’s Apple, Samsung, or Google,” so availability is key. “Samsung’s Galaxy AI features have been around longer than Apple’s and are more widely available on Galaxy phone models,” Wan notes. Not only does this put Apple in a position to catch up, it further complicates the situation given that Apple Intelligence will likely only be supported by the iPhone 15 Pro and the upcoming iPhone 16 series.

Finally, an honorable mention: OpenAI’s release of a “smaller” GPT-4o significantly reduces development costs, and the model itself performs similarly to the original GPT-4o. We’ll wait to see how developers make the most of this new, more flexible model.