New iPhone to catapult tech trendsetter into AI age

Apple's ubiquitous iPhone is about to break new ground with a shift into artificial intelligence (AI) that will do everything from smartening up its frequently dim-witted assistant Siri to creating customised 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.