When we need it the most, Apple is starting to Think Different again

Welcome to the latest instalment of the popular gameshow “AI, or just crap?” Okay, it’s the first instalment, but stick with me.

Our contestant this week is the new illustrated edition of A Feast For Crows by George RR Martin, which has faced a mid-size backlash for the quality of its artwork. The images get important details wrong (or leave them out entirely), in some cases look remarkably similar to actors from the TV show or unofficial fan art, and have the usual anatomical peculiarities, generic expressions, and lighting characteristic of generative AI. Numerous one-star reviews complain about the use of AI, which, given the author’s position on the technology, would seem extraordinarily tone-deaf.

(A Redditor has exhaustively detailed the reasoning behind this accusation, but an earlier thread was taken down presumably for legal reasons so apologies if it’s not there any more by the time you read this.)

To be clear, we don’t know if AI was used in the making of the book (although, as one reviewer observes, it would almost be worse if it wasn’t). But such arguments are becoming tediously commonplace. Time and time again, companies, thrilled by the idea of saving money and chasing the zeitgeist at the same time, have the brainwave of firing their artists and getting the work done, horribly, by AI. The future of art, not for the first time, is at stake.

Which made it particularly interesting last week to hear that Apple took a radically different approach when making a new identity for its rebranded Apple TV (formerly TV+) streaming service. Rather than getting it done by AI or even CGI, the company used a glass model and human ingenuity. How quaint.

Compare this Luddite behavior with Coca-Cola, which has again used generative AI to make an awful Christmas ad this year; Nike, which used AI at the start of this year to simulate Serena Williams playing awful tennis against herself; or Vodafone, which earlier this fall employed an AI spokesperson to advertise a promotion awfully.

This isn’t just surprising because it bucks the trend of the currently AI-obsessed advertising and marketing industries as a whole. It goes against Apple’s own recent habits, too. The company is just as obsessed with AI as anyone. It might not be doing very well with its efforts in that department, but you can be sure they remain a top priority. The M5 chip was heralded last month not for its superior all-around processing powers but as “the next big leap in AI performance,” and only last week we heard that Apple Intelligence is coming for Apple Maps.

So what’s changed? Personally, I’m inclined to wonder how much this decision was influenced by the Crush! ad controversy (or, in my view, total non-controversy) last year. If you’ll recall, Apple was widely criticised for putting art supplies, musical instruments, and similar creative objects into a hydraulic press and, well, crushing them completely flat… until an iPad Pro was left at the end. (It seems pretty clear that at least some CGI was involved, but this wasn’t made clear at the time. who knows, maybe that’s actually how each iPad Pro is made?)

This simple symbolic conceit was taken as an insult to the creative professions and, in the words of one British actor, “the destruction of the human experience.” Apple, it was assumed, wanted to get rid of art and artists and replace them with a soulless tech device. And Apple, which makes a lot of money selling soulless tech devices to artists who then carry on being artists, hurried to emphasise that it doesn’t want that at all. And now it’s backing this up by making a high-profile marketing tool without the use of any technology at all. Other than, you know, an extremely high-end camera.

So no, this probably doesn’t represent Apple turning its back on AI once and for all. It’s a clever bit of Cupertino marketing magic: a nice new identity for Apple TV that grabs publicity by being talked about for its low-tech creation, while also reminding everyone that the company loves artists and certainly doesn’t want to shove them in a hydraulic press. We shouldn’t read much more into it than that.

But I will say this. Art is in a tough spot right now. And in a small way, Apple just made a public statement that the quality of art matters, and that we need to support artists. It’s not much, but it’s more than I would have expected when I first used Genmoji on my iPhone.

Welcome to our weekly Apple Breakfast column, which includes all the Apple news you missed last week in a handy bite-sized roundup. We call it Apple Breakfast because we think it goes great with a Monday morning cup of coffee or tea, but it’s cool if you want to give it a read during lunch or dinner hours too.

Have your say: The Liquid Glass debate

After last week’s article about the death of Liquid Glass, I received lots of emails defending Apple’s controversial design language. Who knew it was so popular?

“I actually like Liquid Glass,” said Patrick. “No plans to modify it.” Jay, meanwhile, said he thinks it’s “really cool” and smiles every time he sees it in effect. “I hope it does not go away,” he adds. Charlie, meanwhile, simply told me: “I LOVE Liquid Glass. Just sayin’.”

The strongest defence came from Miro. “I myself, for what it’s worth, like Liquid Glass very much,” he wrote. “It’s a step up from a time-worn, seen-it-all GUI which ran its course some time ago. I’m 66 years old and my eyes are far from their prime, but I have no issues reading Liquid Glass. Give it time, David. It may become another Apple failure, as you’ve proclaimed, but maybe even you will be taken by surprise.”

But not everyone was on Team Liquid Glass. One reader who asked to remain anonymous wrote in to say: “You have to wonder why Apple always makes these ‘improvements’ mandatory with subsequent reductions, rather than make them opt-in when they’re developed. I’m just an ordinary (though proficient) computer user, not a real techie, and I could tell from the beginning of this thing that it wasn’t going to be very useful or popular.”

John too is less than convinced by the interface, and compared it the pros and cons of Windows Vista. “Liquid Glass brings a nice visual touch to what has mostly been the same old design flare,” he wrote. “Unfortunately, it has also made things visually challenging at times, at least for me, a 62-year-old with vision not exactly the best. I am torn between keeping the visual effects enabled or choosing the slightly reduced effect for my eyes’ sake.”

More positively, John adds that he is hoping to adjust to the glass effect, “or maybe Apple will fix it more. Still feels like reading a book on a piece of glass.”

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