I did not have time to set up a photoshoot with the family this year.
But no ones feeling it this year.
Instead, I might let the computer and the far-offwater-cooled data centersdo my holiday bidding.
© Florence Ion / Gizmodo
I will wish the people I care for a happy holiday by sending out something AI-generated.
Google and Apple made a significant fuss over including on-rig artificial intelligence on their flagships.
Then,Pixel Studiolaunched on thePixel 9smartphone.
© Florence Ion / Gizmodo In both cases, don’t look close.
Its also pretty okay at generating standard text, though it shows limitations if you attempt to veer off-script.
iOS 18.2is out for theiPhone 16, andImage Playgroundis part of the package.
Its Apples take on everyone elses attempts at generative AI.
© Florence Ion / Gizmodo In both cases, don’t look close.
Like Google, the art generated by Image Playground also indicates Apples art style.
Im still not convinced its a replacement for the actual photoshoot.
Why not put them to the test while in dire straits?
© Florence Ion / GizmodoThe poor snowmen. Where are their faces?
That experience taught me that less is more.
Then, I selected the prefilled offering for winter holidays and let the AI do its thing.
This may be a synthetic image, but that doesnt mean the likeness isnt there.
© Florence Ion / Gizmodo Left: Image generated with Pixel Studio.
Then I asked it for a scarf to round out the winter scene.
I agree with my husband, her birth father, about the accuracy of the Image Playground photo.
When I asked his opinion, he said, Its pretty cute.
© Florence Ion / Gizmodo Right: Image generated with Image Playground.
It looks like her.
Indeed, despite the botched mouth area in most of the photos products, the images are passable.
Just dont zoom in.
© Florence Ion / Gizmodo
I was unsatisfied with the snowpeople sculptures generated in the background of my images.
But the snowman couldnt catch a break as a background object.
In most instances, he had his coal eyes and mouth but nothing else.
Image Playground is not great for generating text within an image.
In all cases that I tried, it simply did not work.
When I asked Image Playground to spell Merry Christmas, it wrote pure gibberish instead.
Some helpful prompts offered currently include cats, dogs, and Christmas tree inspiration.
Theres a Christmas scene behind them.
At the bottom, theres text that spells out Catmas.'
Im honestly shocked at how well it delivered.
I tried the same prompt on Apple Intelligence.
It included everything up to Theres a Christmas scene behind them.
It generated a black and white tuxedo cat in a Santa hat, though the cat also wears anactualtuxedo.
The Pixel Studio kept the cats animal likeness and was able to spell out Catmas.
Id hoped I could get away with asking the Pixel Studio for help generating stickers in other languages.
I could see it was a struggle to figure out the traditional Romanian aesthetic to stick with, too.
As I said earlier, dont zoom in.
The Pixel Studio is better if youre looking for something more specific outside the realm of including people.
Ill let you know when I get feedback.
News from the future, delivered to your present.
Two banks say Amazon has paused negotiations on some international data centers.
