NEW YORK, Sept 8, (AP): Apple’s ubiquitous iPhone is about to break new ground with a shift into artificial intelligence that will do everything from smartening up its frequently dim-witted assistant Siri to creating customized emojis on the fly. The new era will dawn Monday with the unveiling of the hotly anticipated iPhone 16 in a Cupertino, California, auditorium named after Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who pulled out the first iPhone in 2007 and waved it like a magic wand while predicting it would reshape society. Apple has sold billions of iPhones since then, helping to create about $3 trillion in shareholder wealth. But in the past decade, there have been mostly minor upgrades from one model to the next - a factor that has caused people to hold off on buying a new iPhone and led to a recent slump in sales of Apple’s marquee product.

The iPhone 16 is generating a bigger buzz because it is the first model to be tailored specifically for AI. This technology is expected to trigger the biggest industrial revolution since Jobs thrust Apple into the smartphone market 17 years ago. The advances included in the iPhone 16 could set up Apple to be “the gatekeeper of the consumer AI revolution,” Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives wrote in a research note. Apple’s pivot began three months ago with a preview of its new approach during a developer's conference, helping to build anticipation for Monday’s showcase. Since that June conference, competitors such as Samsung and Google have made even more strides in AI. Google even took the unusual step of introducing its latest Pixel phones packed with their own AI magic last month instead of hewing to its traditional October timetable to upstage Apple’s release of the iPhone 16.