Here’s How Apple Will Label its AI-Generated Art on Image Playground

Jun 18, 2024

Pesala Bandara

A tablet screen displays an animated character in a space helmet at the center with various customization options surrounding it. The background is dark, and there are icons labeled "Astronaut," "Space," among others, representing different themes and suggestions.

Apple has revealed that it will label AI-generated images made with its new Image Playground tool.

Apple announced its new AI art generator Image Playground in iOS 18 at the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2024 keynote event last week.

Apple’s Image Playground app takes users’ text prompts and turns them into instant images.

Unlike other AI art generators, Apple’s version drastically narrows a user’s stylistic options. The Image Playground tool forces users to choose between three styles: animation, illustration, and sketch.

This means that Apple’s Image Playground app can only be used to generate cartoon art rather than photorealistic images. This means that the company’s app won’t be able to be used to create deepfakes or spread misinformation.

A smartphone screen displaying a text conversation. "Tania" says she'll pick up the other person around 6 a.m. The other person accepts, sends two messages saying "Happy birthday, my dear!" and "I'm awake and ready to surf and celebrate you," with a cake emoji. . — In Messages, users can use Image Playground to quickly create images for their friends, and see personalized suggested concepts related to their conversations.

A smartphone screen displaying a text conversation. The messages show a request to babysit, a positive response, and a humorous comment about loving a cat. An animated image of a woman wearing a superhero outfit is included in the conversation.

Alongside a dedicated app on iOS 18, the feature will be deeply integrated into other apps, including Messages, Notes, Pages, Keynote, and Freeform. Apple will also extend access to the tool to third-party apps.

‘Marking Up the Metadata’

According to 9to5Mac, Apple has now revealed that it will label the metadata of images created with the Image Playground app as AI-generated.

During the annual The Talk Show Live interview during WWDC, Apple’s VP of software engineering Craig Federighi briefly explained that iOS will “mark up the metadata” for these AI-generated images, so that any viewer knows that that image was created by Apple Intelligence and not by someone else.

The Image Playground tool is not available in the current developer beta of iOS 18. According to Apple, these generative AI art capabilities are only going to be available to users in a future beta and only the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max will have the necessary power to run Image Playground.

However, 9to5Mac reports that it was able to find references to image “forensics” that would identify AI-generated files in the iOS 18 beta 1 code. According to the publication, the VisualGeneration framework has references to a “forensics” feature for labeling and identifying AI images.

Apple says that the AI model in the Image Playground app has been trained on “licensed data” and “publicly available data” online.

Image credits: All photos via Apple.