Illustration by Haein Jeong / The Verge
The upcoming release of Apple Intelligence has spurred the iPhone maker’s own “what is a photo?” moment. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Apple software chief Craig Federighi said the company is aiming to provide AI-powered image editing tools that preserve photo authenticity.
“Our products, our phones, are used a lot,” said Federighi. “It’s important to us that we help purvey accurate information, not fantasy.”
iOS 18.1 brings a new “Clean Up” feature to the Photos app that can quickly remove objects and people from images — a capability that Federighi and WSJ reporter Joanna Stern noted is far tamer than editing tools offered by rivals like Google and Samsung, which can add entire AI-generated assets to images. Despite…