Not even. The only device still in production using the A16 is the iPhone 15 (and plus if you consider that a different model).
No chance in hell Apple releases any new phones — even SEs — that can’t do Apple Intelligence.
I’m just telling you that if it follows past SE pattern it’ll be an A18. And they won’t skimp on the RAM because Apple Intelligence is clearly going to be rolled out across their entire product line.
2 + 2 = A18 with 8GB of RAM
Apple rarely backports new tech to older devices. It probably could run on the older chips, but it doesn't look like Apple isn't going for the widest possible rollout. They are launching it for the newest chips only, and are not wasting time porting it to old chips, when they don't even know yet how it's going to scale. So right now they are focussing on English speaking markets and newest devices only.
They are skating to where the puck is going to be, and in a few years no-one will care if their tech runs on the A16 or not. Right now they are focussing on getting this thing launched, and backward compatibility would only slow them down.
And its a selling point to get people to buy new iPhones, so it's win/win for Apple.
I'll give an example:
The iOS 18 photos app, without "Apple Intelligence", still has an improved search function. This is driven of course by a new AI model that tags images with more detail and fidelity than earlier iterations.
However "Apple Intelligence" also features further upgrades to photo searching where a user can request images with highly specific details, expressions or interactions. The example they give is "Katie with stickers on her face", and beta testers have shown examples which demonstrate that other than just tagging individual objects, those items themselves are described and searchable. (E.g. The difference is like between being able to search for photos with a "dress", versus "a red dress", "a wedding dress", <person> "wearing polka dot dress", etc.)
If Apple can profitably provide AI services without breaking privacy laws but their competitors can't Apple wins.
Apple Intelligence requires deep access to user data, systems apps, etc to make it useful.
Under the DMA, Apple would be required to also offer similar functionality to competitors (e.g. Google).
No sane person actually thinks Apple isn’t private enough for EU standards, they’re just not being allowed to compete because they aren’t allowing anyone else access to local user context, which would be a privacy nightmare if done incorrectly.
Apple Intelligence is a set of features for a platform (iOS) which the EU has determined to be a Gatekeeper platform which comes with special restrictions and oversight.
There's a regulatory difference between that and just releasing an LLM accessible via the web or an app download.