iOS 18 Image Playground to tag AI-generated images in metadata

One of the new features of iOS 18 is an app called Image Playground, which is part of the Apple Intelligence suite of artificial intelligence tools coming later this year. With Image Playground, users will be able to generate images from text commands or even based on a photo of someone. We don’t have many details about the app yet since it’s not available in iOS 18 beta 1, but we do know that Apple is planning to tag AI-generated images.

iOS 18 and the Image Playground app

During the year Talk Show Live In the interview, Apple’s vice president of software engineering Craig Federighi briefly mentioned that iOS will “mark metadata” for images created so that anyone knows that image was created by Apple Intelligence and not someone else.

9 to 5 Mac was able to confirm this based on code findings in iOS 18 beta 1. The VisualGeneration framework has references to a “forensics” feature for AI image tagging and identification.

An interesting aspect of Apple’s Image Playground is that the app will only generate cartoon images and not realistic photos, which is also a great way to prevent people from using the tool to spread misinformation.

More information about Apple Intelligence

As we mentioned earlier, Apple Intelligence features are not available in iOS 18 beta. According to the company, the features will be introduced in an upcoming beta later this year.

iOS Code suggests there will be a waiting list for users interested in enabling Apple Intelligence during the beta period. However, Apple has already said that some of the features demonstrated at WWDC won’t be available until 2025.

When we analyzed the iOS 18 beta code, we already found many of Apple’s Intelligence frameworks hidden in the system. Even the Image Playground app is already integrated into the iOS 18 beta. Of course, since the large language models (LLM) running on Apple’s servers are not yet available, it is not possible to use the AI ​​features.

Apple has already said that Apple Intelligence will be free for users. However, 9 to 5 Mac found mention of AI features in Cloud Subscription frameworks. It is unclear if Apple plans to introduce additional paid features in the future or if users will have the option to subscribe to ChatGPT Plus directly from the Settings app, since Apple announced ChatGPT integration in iOS 18.

iOS 18 is currently available as a developer preview, while a public beta will be released next month. The official release is set for this fall.

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