‘Important that we purvey accurate information, not fantasy’: Apple on why iPhone lacks Google Pixel-like AI
In 2024, Android phones have introduced AI-powered features that transform images in various ways, prompting users to reconsider the very nature of an image. For instance, the Google Pixel 9's Reimagine feature lets you completely overhaul an image—whether it's modifying the background, altering an object, or even sketching something for AI to generate an object within a photo on Samsung Galaxy devices. It is this very photo manipulation that Apple isn't entirely comfortable with, at least according to what Apple's Craig Federighi told WSJ, as spotted by The Verge.
Federighi stated that Apple is wary of transforming a photo into “fantasy” and that the company debated internally about including features, such as the Clean Up tool, which is Apple's version of Google's Magic Eraser.
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When using AI tools like Reimagine, you can completely transform an image into something that doesn't exist in real life. This is the perspective from which Craig Federighi is approaching the issue.
WSJ's Joanna Stern questioned Federighi on why, while some companies have taken an “extreme route” by allowing the generation of new elements within photos, Apple has chosen a more restrained approach.
In response, Federighi said, “Yeah, I would say, even the ability to remove that water bottle is one that there were a lot of debates about. Internally, do we want to make it easy to remove that water bottle or that mic because that water bottle was there--when you took the photo? The demand for people wanting to clean up what seem like extraneous details to the photo that don't fundamentally change the meaning of what happened has been very, very high. So, you know, we were willing to take that small step, but we are concerned that there's a great history to photography and how people view photographic content as something they can rely on as indicative of reality. Our products, our phones, are used a
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