Posts Tagged → image

About That Yule Playlist Artwork

Last Friday, I published my annual post referring to my Yule playlist. Attached to it was a cute picture of Santa Claus playing the saxophone. That image spurred a few questions about whether I used AI for it, and the answer is yes. For two years, I’ve been doing this post with an AI image of Santa playing the sax. Last year, the best I could do was a black-and-white illustration that was acceptable, but not cute.

This year, however, I upped my game. I have a one-month subscription to Magnific for a video I made for the MacSparky Labs. This is, by many accounts, the best AI image generator available. Although my testing and experience with it have been mixed, I must admit that it delivered (and then some) when it came to making a cute image of Santa playing the saxophone. I also note that it looks like Santa has a well-stocked bar in the background. It is remarkable how far this technology has come in just a year.

As an aside, I also gave it another prompt to make a cute image of Santa Playing a Yanagisawa tenor sax (I play a Yani.) It made a cute image, but it didn’t get the look of a Yanagisawa horn at all. I ended up using the above image instead because it’s so artistic (and shows Santa’s funny booze collection).

Apple’s Image Playground: Safety at the Cost of Utility?

As I’ve spent considerable time with Apple’s Image Playground in the recent iOS 18.2 beta, I’m left with more questions than answers about Apple’s approach to AI image generation. The most striking aspect is how deliberately unrealistic the output appears — every image unmistakably reads as AI-generated, which seems to be exactly what Apple intended.

The guardrails are everywhere. Apple has implemented strict boundaries around generating images of real people, and interestingly, even their own intellectual property is off-limits. When I attempted to generate an image of a Mac mini, the system politely declined.

Drawing a Mac mini is a no-go for Image Playground…

This protective stance extends beyond the obvious restrictions: Try anything remotely offensive or controversial, and Image Playground simply won’t engage.

Apple’s cautious approach makes sense. Apple’s customers expect their products to be safe. Moreover, Apple is not aiming to revolutionize AI image generation; rather, they’re working to provide a safe, controlled creative tool for their users. These limitations however can significantly impact practical applications. My simple request to generate an image of a friend holding a Mac mini (a seemingly innocent use case) was rejected outright.

I hope Apple is aware of this tipping point and reconsidering as Image Playground heads toward public launch. At least let it draw your own products, Apple.