With new artificial intelligence technologies, Apple asks the question “what is photography?” He is looking for his own answer to the question. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, the company’s software manager, Craig Federighi, stated that Apple’s artificial intelligence-supported image editing tools aim to preserve the authenticity of the photo.
“Our products and phones are used very frequently,” Federighi said, adding, “It is important for us to spread accurate information and present facts, not fantasies.”
Apple adds a new “Clean Up” feature to the Photos application with iOS 18.1. This feature can quickly remove objects and people from photos. Federighi and The Wall Street Journal reporter Joanna Stern state that this feature is more limited than the artificial intelligence-supported editing tools offered by competitors such as Google and Samsung. However, Federighi stated that there were “huge discussions” within the company about adding the “Cleaning” feature.
“Do we want to make it easier to lift that water bottle or microphone? Because that bottle was there when you took the photo,” he said, expressing concerns about the removal of elements in the background of the photo. However, he stated that users showed a great demand to clean up details that do not change the meaning of the photo but seem unnecessary, and explained that they decided to take this small step in line with this demand.
Federighi stated that Apple is concerned about the impact of artificial intelligence on people’s perception of photographic content as a reliable indicator of reality. The Reimagine feature, offered by competitors such as Google, allows users to add elements such as lions, bombs or illegal substances to photos with just text input. Such tools risk further eroding the credibility of photography.
Apple’s new “Cleanup” feature does not allow AI-generated assets to be added to photos, as rivals offer. Additionally, all photos edited using this feature will be marked with the “Edited with Cleanup” tag and will be saved with metadata indicating the changes made to the photo.
Apple is not the only company taking precautions in this regard
Apple is not the only company taking precautions in this area. The “Content Authenticity Initiative” developed by Adobe aims to distinguish whether photos are original or not with a similar metadata system, “Content Identity Information”. This system requires voluntary support from technology, camera and media companies, and this support appears to be increasing. However, it is not yet clear whether Apple’s own metadata system will be compatible with “Content Credentials”.