It appears that Apple has included several hidden prompts in macOS Sequoia that help Apple Intelligence avoid hallucinations and ensure accuracy in its features.
Reddit user devanxd2000 discovered the pre-prompt instruction embedded in the developer's beta for macOS 15.1. These prompts are designed to prevent Apple Intelligence from generating hallucinations, a phenomenon where an AI reports false information, to ensure that all information is accurate and user-friendly. Some examples in the post are from Smart Reply in Apple Mail and the Memories feature in Apple Photos.
For instance, when it comes to Smart Reply the AI is programmed to identify any relevant questions from an email and generate a concise answer. As such, the prompt states, "You are a helpful mail assistant which can help identify relevant questions from a given mail and a short reply snippet. Given a mail and the reply snippet, ask relevant questions which are explicitly asked in the mail."
It also specifies that Apple Intelligence should "not ask questions which are answered by the reply snippet. The questions should be short, no more than 8 words. The answers should be short as well, around 2 words." and specifies the format in which the answer should be given
Meanwhile, the Memories feature for Apple Photos, which allows Apple Intelligence to generate video stories from user photos, has its own set of guidelines. The prompts instruct the AI to create positive stories that are free of any controversial or harmful content.
The prompt states, "Here are the story guidelines you must obey: The story should be about the intent of the user; The story should contain a clear arc; The story should be diverse, that is, do not overly focus the entire story on one very specific theme or trait; Do not write a story that is religious, political, harmful, violent, sexual, filthy or in any way negative, sad or provocative."
Finally, Apple's AI tools include a general directive that helps it avoid hallucination. For instance, the Writing tool feature's prompts are written as follows, "You are an assistant which helps the user respond to their mails. Given a mail, a draft response is initially provided based on a short reply snippet. In order to make the draft response nicer and complete, a set of question and its answer are provided. Please write a concise and natural reply by modifying the draft response to incorporate the given questions and their answers. Please limit the reply within 50 words. Do not hallucinate. Do not make up factual information."
It is good to see that Apple is making sure to avoid some of the common pitfalls that can afflict AI. While it is interesting to see some of the inner workings of AI, it won't cover some of the complaints from customers who are disappointed that they will not have access to AI features on their iPhones unless they upgrade.
Apple Intelligence will fully roll out with iOS 18.1 this fall. For more info check out the 5 Apple Intelligence features to try first on your iPhone.
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