This week on Cult of Mac’s podcast: With WWDC23 just days away, we’re going on the record with our predictions for Apple’s most momentous developer conference in years. Will iOS 17 allow alternative app stores? Will the Apple headset cost $3,000? Will our reputations survive this public guessing game?

Also on The CultCast:

• It looks like new high-end Macs will definitely be in the mix — and the leaked specs sound absolutely blistering.
• The Apple headset’s advanced hardware might make virtual reality look stunningly real.
• Generative AI shows us what the rest of Taylor Swift’s evermore album cover might look like.

Listen to this week’s episode of The CultCast in the Podcasts app or your favorite podcast app. (Be sure to subscribe and leave us a review if you like it!) Or watch the video live stream, embedded below.

OpenAI’s ChatGPT for iOS makes the much-hyped chatbot easy to use on an iPhone. It’s powered by the same artificial intelligence as the web version, so it’s useful in many ways for people on the go. Plus, the app has its own voice-recognition system. And the basic version is free.

The ChatGPT AI already stirred up enormous controversy. But here are some suggestions for how to use the new iPhone application in positive ways.

With Generative Fill in Photoshop, users can select an area in their image then tell the app what they want added and the application will generate the addition through the power of artificial intelligence.

It’s the latest addition to Adobe Firefly, a collection of tools for generative AI.

Apple is apparently responding to criticism that it doesn’t offer real competition for OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard, two AI-powered chatbots that have made so many headlines in recent months. Job postings show the Mac-maker is on a hiring spree for people skilled in generative AI.

Perhaps Apple’s voice-activated system Siri is in for a significant jump in capabilities.

Apple reportedly banned its employees from using artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT for work purposes. The company’s decision stems from concerns about confidential data leakage.

Apple informed its employees about this move through an internal memo.

OpenAI introduced ChatGPT for iOS, an application that brings the much-hyped chatbot powered by artificial intelligence to iPhone users.

It is free and has all the features of the web version, which means it is ready to answer questions with generally correct answers. Plus, this iOS version supports OpenAI’s speech recognition system.

As artificial intelligence goes mainstream, we’re finally starting to see the emergence of “one-stop shop” tools that can generate nearly any kind of content. Scribbyo is one such AI tool that’s poised to change the game for entrepreneurs, marketers, bloggers and more.

For a limited time, Cult of Mac readers can score this highly customizable AI content generator for only $49 (regularly $864), the best price online.

AI image generators are exciting, but there’s another way for artificial intelligence to give you a great photo. The self-flying Air Neo camera drone uses AI to lock onto you and snap a few photos from the air.

This AI-powered drone is on sale for $149.99 (regularly $159). 

Humane, the hot Silicon Valley startup that’s been drumming up interest in its secretive product recently, finally showed the world what its A-list talent has been working on. In a TED talk released on Tuesday, Humane co-founder Imran Chaudhri unveiled a small, screenless, badge-like device that the company hopes will replace the smartphone.

Humane is  a buzzy startup that’s raised more than $230 million from investors and has hired a lot of ex-Apple talent. It’s estimated 50% of the company’s 200 employees are from Apple. Chaudhri was one of the lead designers of the original iPhone, and contributed to dozens of Apple’s biggest products (the Mac, iPod, Apple TV, Apple Watch, AirPods and HomePod). His name is on thousands of patents. He met his wife, Humane co-founder Bethany Bongiorno, at Apple. And they hired Ken Kocienda, who literally wrote the book on Apple’s creative process.

I’m laying out their credentials here at the top because it is remarkable to me how such a team could miss the mark by such an incredible margin. Humane’s badge thing cannot and will not replace your iPhone, no matter how hard Chaudhri wishes that to be the case.

Steve Wozniak, who co-founded Apple along with Steve Jobs, warned that generative AI will make scams much easier to pull off.

Woz called for regulation to require AI-generated content to be labeled as such.