In Short:
Apple’s upcoming iOS 18 introduces exciting AI features, like rewriting messages and summarizing emails. A standout is Image Playground, which creates cartoon-style images from text prompts. The first example features Bailey, a dog owned by Craig Federighi, celebrating her birthday. This fun image highlights Apple’s creative approach amid growing generative AI tools, accessible via Messages or as a standalone app.
Apple’s upcoming iOS 18 promises a range of innovative artificial intelligence-driven capabilities designed to enhance user experience. Among its various features, the new mobile operating system can rewrite text messages, summarize emails, and identify objects within photos. One of the standout functionalities is Image Playground, which generates whimsical, cartoon-like illustrations based on user-provided text prompts.
First Real-World Example of Image Playground
While Apple has showcased several outputs during keynotes, demos, and promotional videos, the first real-world example of an Image Playground character has now been revealed. Apple has shared this groundbreaking illustration with WIRED, marking the first instance outside of its standard marketing materials.
The illustration portrays a charming small dog adorned with a party hat, joyfully sitting behind a birthday cake. This delightful dog is named Bailey, owned by Craig Federighi, Senior Vice President of Software Engineering at Apple. Federighi created this image as a special tribute for his wife’s celebration of Bailey’s recent birthday. He referenced the illustration during an interview with WIRED’s Lily Hay Newman, discussing Apple’s Private Cloud Compute, a secure server environment designed for handling AI tasks that aren’t suitable for processing on consumer devices. Following the interview, Apple representatives shared the illustration with the media. WIRED adheres to a strict policy of identifying AI-generated images, which is why the image includes a watermark.
The Broad Context of Generative AI
The introduction of Image Playground coincides with a growing trend among major tech companies to integrate generative AI tools into their software offerings. Companies such as Microsoft, Google, and Meta have rolled out AI-enhanced applications that focus on productivity and creativity. While Apple’s approach in iOS 18 also emphasizes practical applications of AI, it notably incorporates enjoyable applications like Image Playground.
This feature operates as a stand-alone app, but it can also be accessed through the Messages application. Users can generate images by typing a description, selecting a photo from their library, or choosing from a set of preloaded concepts. Additionally, users can select from three artistic styles: Illustration, Sketch, and Animation. It is important to distinguish this from Genmoji, which allows for the generation of custom emojis using text prompts directly from the keyboard.
Current Availability of Features
As of now, neither Image Playground nor Genmoji are available in beta form (although other Apple intelligence features are present in the iOS 18.1 developer beta). Consequently, the only representations of these generative AI outputs have been closely managed by Apple. Until broader access is granted, Federighi’s endearing depiction of Bailey remains the most authentic example of this technology beyond Apple’s tightly controlled marketing environment. It is certainly a noteworthy illustration, demonstrating a more approachable side of AI compared to some earlier presentations observed during the WWDC keynote.
Update: September 11, 2024, at 7:33 PM EDT: This story was updated to include the name of Federighi’s dog.
