It's not an operating system or an AI model, so what is it? Apple banks on customer loyalty to keep sales afloat as it teases out a vague future.

Apple is building its future on a suite of tools that are ill-defined at best. Apple Intelligence is not a new operating system or an AI model like GPT-4o. Best I can tell, it's a curated collection of generative AI features grouped under the Apple Intelligence branding umbrella.

When Apple Intelligence was unveiled in June, the company defined it as a "personal intelligence system that puts powerful generative models at the core of iPhone, iPad, and Mac." Essentially, it's an AI that can do things for you.

During this week's iPhone 16 launch event, Apple expanded that definition to call it a "personal intelligence system that combines the power of generative models with personal context to deliver intelligence that is incredibly useful and relevant."

Did your eyes glaze over when reading that? Mine did. Perhaps Apple Intelligence is so far-reaching and revolutionary that there is no simple elevator pitch for it. It will eventually do everything a human can do on their phone using their personal data -- or "grounded in personal context," as Craig Federighi, SVP of software engineering at Apple, put it this week.

This may present a challenge for Apple's marketing team, which will have to convince people to upgrade to a smartphone that won't have its marquee feature at launch on Sept. 20. Consumers will get bits and pieces of Apple Intelligence over the coming months, starting in October with Writing Tools, notification prioritization, and the ability to text to Siri.

These features all have elements of ChatGPT's bread and butter: Writing, editing, and summarizing text and searching the web. A ChatGPT integration with Apple Intelligence is expected...eventually. On Monday, Apple said the ChatGPT rollout is among the features coming "later this year and in the months following."

Also MIA for now: a completely revamped version of Siri.

"Siri will be even more capable, with the ability to draw on a user's personal context to deliver intelligence that is tailored to them," Apple said this week. "It will also gain onscreen awareness, as well as take hundreds of new actions in and across Apple and third-party apps."

But when? In July, Bloomberg said Siri's big upgrade isn't expected until spring 2025 but Apple didn't announce any specifics, or address how it will compete with OpenAI's Voice Mode and Google's Project Astra.

Apple seems a little bit lost, like a teenager going through some growing pains. It may have to rely on customers with aging iPhones for iPhone 16 sales. Without Apple Intelligence, few features, save for a new Camera Control button, differentiate the device from the iPhone 15. Maybe by the iPhone 17, Apple will have defined "Apple Intelligence" -- the features it entails, the tech that powers it, and how it all knits together into a single "intelligence system."