Apple reportedly plans to fix bugs and expand the capabilities of Apple Intelligence with the release of iOS 27, iPadOS 27 and macOS 27 year, and it seems like tweaks to the company's AI could go beyond a more functional version of its Siri assistant. Bloomberg reports that this year's software updates will also include new AI-powered photo editing tools that will let users change things like the background and framing of images, too. You can currently use the Photos app across Apple's operating systems to adjust things like saturation and contrast, apply filters, crop photos or use AI to remove objects with the Clean Up tool . Clean Up will apparently be one of several "Apple Intelligence Tools" after these new updates roll out, Bloomberg writes. Along with Clean Up, users will be able to use "Extend" to expand the background of the photo with generative AI, "Enhance" to automatically improve things like lighting and image quality and "Reframe" to shift the perspective of a photo after it's taken, primarily for Apple's spatial photos. The new features, if released, will bring Apple's photo-editing tools more in line with competitors like Google and Samsung, though both companies still lap Apple in their willingness to create entirely generated images. Google's Magic Editor feature , which debuted in 2023, still takes the cake in terms of giving users leeway to radically add to and change their photos. Other than new photo tools, Apple is reportedly also debuting its new version of Siri powered by Google's Gemini models, a standalone Siri app and AI-powered search inside its apps. Apple will likely introduce many of these new features during its WWDC keynote on June 8 . This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/ios-27-will-reportedly-come-with-new-ai-powered-photo-editing-tools-194119562.html?src=rss
It was only a matter of time before they found a way to use AI agents as corporate shills. On Tuesday, Snapchat rolled out AI Sponsored Snaps, a "new way for brands to show up in Chat through AI agents." Or, put another way, it's conversational advertising. (Yay?) AI Sponsored Snaps will appear in the app's Chat tab (with a light gray "Ad" notation next to the brand name). After opening the chat, you can ask the agent questions about the brand it represents. Snap showed an example from its first partner for the initiative, Experian. The bot offers to answer your questions on saving money, improving your credit score and — there it is — exploring loans and credit cards. Whether through credit card offers or other means, the AI agent will presumably try to guide you toward behavior that makes money for the sponsor. So, it isn't clear why this would be better for consumers than asking a general-purpose chatbot like Gemini or Claude the same questions. Maybe the answer is as simple as, "It isn't… but they know people will use it anyway." Snap "Conversation is becoming the most valuable real estate in advertising," Snap's Chief Business Officer, Ajit Mohan, wrote in a press release . "AI is accelerating that shift, turning chat into the place where people discover products, ask questions, and make decisions in real time. The real opportunity isn't just putting ads into those environments, it's designing formats that feel native to how people already talk." Snap says more than half a billion people have messaged its My AI feature since it launched three years ago. That was despite a shaky start, where the bot told researchers and journalists posing as young teenagers how to mask the smell of alcohol or cannabis and set the mood for sex. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/snapchat-is-rolling-out-sponsored-ai-agents-162720124.html?src=rss
