Earlier this week at WWDC 2024, Apple announced a slew of AI features coming to its various software platforms, including an Image Playground AI art generator in iOS 18 – and now we have some more information about how the app will work.
As reported by 9to5MacApple VP of software engineering Craig Federighi said in an interview during WWDC that iOS 18 will “mark metadata” so that image files contain details that indicate whether or not they were created by AI.
While the current iOS 18 developer beta doesn’t include any of the upcoming AI features (i.e. no Image Playground app), some who dug into the 9to5Mac team’s beta code found references to “forensics” of images that are AI-generated files would identify.
When you put that together, it becomes clear that Apple has been thinking about how to encourage the responsible use of AI – which Apple calls Apple Intelligence on its own devices – and how to prevent fake photos from being passed off as real.
Apple and AI art
From what we already know about Image Playground, the app will appear in various places – such as Messages or Notes – when you need to take a new AI photo. For example, it could be a custom emoji, or an image of a friend in your chosen setting.
Images created by Image Playground are styled like cartoons and illustrations rather than photos, so that’s one way Apple protects itself from misuse of these tools. If you’re not sure what to make, quick suggestions are also included.
These AI models are trained on “licensed data” and “publicly available data” pulled from the internet, Apple says. In other words, if your art is online, Apple Intelligence is probably trained on it – unless the site it’s published on has opted out of the process.
The Image Playground capabilities will be made available in a future beta, according to Apple, but of the currently available iPhones, only the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max will have the necessary power to use them. These AI art generation features will also be available on Apple Silicon Macs.