Apple’s upcoming iOS 18 is packed with AI-powered features. The new mobile operating system can rewrite text messages, summarize emails, and identify objects in photos. But one of the most fun features is Image Playground, which generates cartoon-like illustrations from a text prompt.
While Apple has shown off examples of its production during its presentations, demos, and product videos, until now we haven’t seen a real-life example of an Image Playground character. Apple shared with the first example created by Image Playground that it has shown off outside of its pre-recorded presentations and marketing materials.
This image of an adorable little dog wearing a party hat and smiling behind a birthday cake is no ordinary pup. His name is Bailey and he belongs to Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, who created the image for his wife in honor of Bailey’s recent birthday.
Federighi referenced the illustration during his interview with ’s Lily Hay Newman about Apple’s private cloud computing, the secure server environment the company created to handle requests for AI tasks that can’t be processed on a consumer’s device. Apple representatives later shared it. It’s ’s policy to clearly identify any AI-generated images we publish, which is why you see the watermark on the image.
Image Playground debuts at a time when generative AI tools have been creeping into the software of major tech companies, as Microsoft, Google, and Meta have all released AI-powered software that focuses on productivity and creativity. While Apple’s focus in iOS 18 also prioritizes the practical side of AI, the company has also included some purely fun apps, with Image Playground being a prime example.
It exists as a standalone app, but you can also access it through Messages. To generate an image, you can type a description of what you want to see, choose a photo of someone from your photo library, or choose from some pre-loaded concepts. You can also choose from three styles: Illustration, Sketch, and Animation. This feature is not to be confused with Genmoji, which lets you generate custom emojis directly from the keyboard using text prompts.
Since none of these generative AI features are available in beta yet (though a few other Apple Intelligence features are in the iOS 18.1 developer beta), the only examples we’ve seen of Image Playground and Gemoji in production have been tightly controlled by Apple. Until the features are released, Federighi’s adorable dog is the closest we’ll see to an example that exists beyond heavily produced and edited marketing materials. And I’d say it’s pretty cool — and certainly not as creepy as the examples we saw during the WWDC keynote. Good job, Craig.
Update: September 11, 2024 at 7:33 p.m. EDT. This story has been modified to add the name of Federighi’s dog.