Elevate your hand when you’ve been utilizing Apple Intelligence commonly since Apple formally launched it with the iPhone 16 lineup and the iOS 18.2 replace. It is highly effective and woven all through the platform, but I do know it is not but a part of my workflow and I’ve struggled a bit to know when it is sensible to name within the AI. Nicely, I did till this vacation season.
It was Christmas Day. The air was sharply chilly and the bottom nonetheless white from flakes that confirmed up simply days earlier than the jolly previous elf. Except for my spouse and children, none of my household lives close by, so I normally ship (and obtain) texts wishing all a “very merry Christmas”.
On this case, my niece despatched me a observe, and as I ready to shortly textual content her again, I went searching for a humorous and applicable GIF. My niece is among the few members of the family who appreciates my humor, so I hate to disappoint.
In Messages, I pressed on the plus subsequent to the textual content field and began scrolling previous the Digicam, Images, Stickers, Apple Money, Audio (there’s so much in right here) however earlier than I received to the GIF retailer (hidden beneath”#photographs”), I discovered Picture Playground.
Picture Playground is inventive however extremely secure, you may even name it timid.
Whereas Google Gemini, OpenAI ChatGPT, Midjourney. and others are letting individuals create nearly any type of generative AI picture, Apple took a really Apple-ly strategy to synthetic intelligence photographs. Picture Playground is like these bowling guides you pop up on both aspect of a bowling lane to maintain your bowling ball out of the gutters, on observe, and safely headed towards the pins. It is inventive however extremely secure, you may even name it timid. You possibly can describe individuals in your contacts doing varied issues however they’re going to be rendered in secure and cartoony kinds. There are many ideas for enjoyable backgrounds however you would be hard-pressed to create an off-color or upsetting AI picture.
After I requested Picture Playground to make a picture of monkeys consuming Lance (that is how the platform is aware of me), I received an cute cartoon of monkeys consuming banana-like fruit however I used to be not included on the menu.
Nonetheless, now that I used to be in it, I spotted I may strive sending my niece a humorous, cartoony picture of me doing one thing silly. I requested for me as Santa with a reindeer. Picture Playground did not take lengthy to create a number of photographs and if I stored swiping by way of, it will generate extra new appears to be like.
Certainly one of Picture Playground’s key superpowers is its skill to generate characters that look cannily such as you. This takes some coaching with photographs of you in your picture library. I feel the result’s fairly good although my tooth won’t ever be that good.
I despatched the picture and a quick message to my niece who shortly replied, “Omg, haha”. I feel that meant she favored it, regardless of my spouse, who was on the message thread including, “ignore your loopy uncle”.
Emboldened, I spent the remainder of the day utilizing Picture Playground to ship every member of the family a customized picture. In every case, I attempted to tailor the immediate to one thing that associated to every of them.
For my older sister who lives in Colorado, I despatched a picture of me as Santa climbing a mountain. She learn it and was shocked into silence.
For my brother who has some curiosity within the tech area, I despatched him Santa Lance at work on the pc. I sensed his confusion in his response, “Is that this an Apple Me factor?” I defined what it was and he appreciatively replied, “Good.”
For my youthful sister, I replied to her “Merry Christmas” with a picture of me as Santa carrying packages. Granted, I had requested for me to carrying an enormous bag of presents, however this could suffice.
Her one-word response was: “Horrifying.”
I struggled a bit on the one for my dad and mom till I stumble on the thought of producing a picture of me with their canine, Abby. She’s a small, black terrier who loves me. On the time, I could not bear in mind the canine breed so I merely requested Picture Playground to depict me with a small, furry, black canine. The end result wasn’t horrible. It did some good guesswork on Abby’s partially white snout however the beady eyes are a bit unnerving.
My mom shortly responded with “Merry Christmas. What’s with the pic?”, I advised her it was AI-generated. The shortage of response was a transparent indication she had no thought what I used to be on about.
The excellent news is, that is probably the most I’ve used Picture Playground because it launched and, other than testing iOS 18 options for TechRadar, it is probably the most I’ve used Apple Intelligence in my private life.
I am not sure Picture Playground is a cause for Apple Intelligence to exist however I like that my little inventive/synthetic intelligence efforts at the least elicited some response. Maybe it will encourage my family to look additional into this rising know-how and in the event that they improve their telephones and allow it check out Apple Intelligence for themselves.
Although I am guessing not.