Apple's image generation AI has some heavy restrictions on what it allows you to create, but I have found there are ways to get around the limitations and the guardrails just a bit. Other times you use it, you're going to be surprised with nightmare fuel, but I'll

get back to that in a second. iOS 18.2 is in the wild; it has some of Apple's most anticipated Apple intelligence features, including Image Playground and Genmoji. These are tools to generate art of objects and environments or characters of people or unique emoji in

the style of Apple's standard emojis. Just type in some descriptive words, and bam! It makes the art on the spot. Now, this whole season of iOS 18 updates has been quite the learning curve, so let's go over some interesting things to know about using these new image-generating

features, that is, if you have a device that can handle Apple intelligence. In fact, why don't I ask Image Playground to make a little graphic for the show? Okay, I'm Bridget Carey, and this is my weekly Apple show.  'One more thing...no, one thong...Mo'

excuse me...uh...one more major...one more thing. Yeah, we'll go with that—close enough. Apple is gradually releasing its AI tools on the iPhone, the iPad, and Mac with operating system updates. Now, most of what I'll be showing is from iOS 18.2 that I am making with

my iPhone 16, but you can also create this stuff on a Mac or iPad. Now let's start with Image Playground. This is a separate app to create cartoon-style art. You put a word into the machine—let's try 'party hat'—and presto chango, you get

Several party hats; you can save the one you like best. This might be good for when you're doing a book report and you just need a simple object to put in your paper, like back in the clip art days. You can also make character sketches of people.

found in your Photos app. You can only have one person in the photo at a time, and it keeps it restricted to the top half of their body. Now the weird fun begins when you start adding multiple descriptive words or give the person props. Let's show me eating spaghetti.

What could go wrong? Yeah, it turns out a lot can go wrong with fingers and forks. If you want real chaos, try adding something like a violin—fingers and strings and bows all converging and floating. Yeah, the more complicated it is, the more you might need to try a few times.

Or just know that it's not that good yet at doing complicated details. Now, the system is going to push back on some words that it wants you to avoid because I think Apple doesn't want you making some troublesome concepts into art. But if you get creative, you might get around

the blocks. Sometimes words are blocked because of copyright; for example, you can't make Godzilla rampaging through the city, but you could type in "large lizard monster, New York City, breathing fire," and you can get something. If it's looking too cutesy for you, I want you to

go down to the plus sign and switch it to illustration mode. It's more of a drawing; that might help get closer to what you want. Let's say I wanted to make myself into a Star Wars Jedi. Funny enough, "lightsaber" does work, but "Jedi"

doesn't. So I put in "Wizard" and "Sunset," and I turned to illustration, and I got a lightsaber through my head. Or how about one on top of my head? It's St. Bridget of the Galactic Church. Yeah, this is why Apple says it's in beta, but don't let

beta stop you from bending reality. In one example, I wanted to make myself into a witch. Now, it just didn't do anything when I used the word "witch," but you can work with similar words like "Wizard," "black hat," and "pointy hat," and start to get somewhere. In the spirit of the movie

"Wicked," I tried to make my skin green, but it wouldn't change my skin. But then I told it I wanted green face paint, and that kind of worked. Look at me! I'm defying guardrails! If you're making a character of someone you know,

sometimes it could be hard to generate different emotions beyond happy, at least for me. I couldn't get it to show me as angry or sad or scared. I got it to give me red eyes; I guess I got close to mad when I used illustration mode on myself,

and it was not flattering. But sometimes it does work; it depends on the person, I guess. If you want a mad face, you can always go with a generic cartoon. The trouble is when you want it to look like someone in your own photo album. Oh, and

here's a tip: You can save an image you make in Image Playground and then go back later to add or keep editing it. You don't have to start over again. I saved this cute one of my kid drinking chocolate milk, but it got the eye color

Wrong, so I can go back, edit, see the original words I used to make it, and add or subtract descriptions to tweak it. It tends to average hair and eye colors, so you have to adjust some things manually. And if you are working inside of a note, you can generate an image

right inside your note; that could be handy. Also, on the iPad, if I'm taking notes on a report, let's say for frogs, and I made this little doodle, then I go to drawing tools, I select this rainbow stick—it's called an image wand—and you

draw a circle around something you want to look better. Genmoji is a whole other tool, and it operates kind of similar to Image Playground, but you do it all inside the emoji keyboard. And you also need to get creative to break through the guardrails when you are

searching for an emoji. You want to click this rainbow smiley face and start typing your descriptive words. It's easy to whip up an emoji that you always wanted but never could have, like, say, a drone, or white wine, or a broken robot. At one point, I wondered, could I make myself

wearing Minnie Mouse ears? But, of course, it can't do anything with that phrase; it's a Disney thing. But when I type in 'black mouse ears with black headband and red polka dot bow,' well, it does do the job. The simple ones sometimes can be the

most challenging. When I searched for a 'melting computer,' things just got deranged. And why is it a Windows computer? If you want to look sad in your own personal emoji, you can't just type 'sad'; that won't work. But I could instead add 'crying tears.' Just know the tears

might go anywhere. You can use human feelings in your description to get really weird results. This is what I got when I typed in "liquid fear," and sometimes it throws in extra visual elements that you didn't expect. I asked for a spiky yellow heart and I got bonus blood splatter—ooh!

So metal! And when I typed in "newspaper," it gave me a sad face sparkle. Oh, how magically depressing! These systems do not understand common concepts of childish humor. I typed in "P" because I am immature, and I got this nightmare liquid box face. Cool, cool. Well, have fun now!

While you can, in this beta phase, save the strange stuff you make as a sticker. Click the three dots and save it to stickers to be used later. Now, if someone sends you a weird one, you can press down on the emoji in iMessage and select "Emoji details." That's how you

will see the words someone used to make their creation—like "sad pony plane ride." Thanks, Scott! You can save it to your own list if you want to use it later. I don't know how long we're all going to be goofing around with these. I mean, we're

not really using those animated animal emojis anymore. Genmoji could take the same path; it might be a silly thing that comes and goes, or it could be something that is shared for a laugh with your friends. But if you have tips or things you have learned in your tinkering, share

it in the comments below, and I'll see you next time—when there's one more thing, or one Thor more, whichever comes first!

Hacking Genmoji: Tips for Using Apple’s AI Emoji and Image Playground

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Hacking Genmoji: Tips for Using Apple’s AI Emoji and Image Playground

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