There’s no beta for Genmoji or AI image generation, and Pixel 9 headlines explain why

Today reviews dropped for Google’s AI-packed Pixel 9 phones. Why mention that on an Apple site? Because the headlines Google’s getting help explain why Apple Intelligence’s image generation features are still MIA from the iOS 18.1 beta. In fact, the more headlines I see, the more I wonder if we’ll ever see features like Genmoji and Image Playground launch. Here’s why.

Pixel 9’s AI image tools impress…but mostly horrify

Google’s new Pixel 9 comes with a variety of AI features, several of which involve images.

You can have objects realistically added to an existing image with a simple typed command. There’s also an Image Playground-like app for generating new images from scratch.

Though these features are only a small part of the Pixel 9’s capabilities, they’re getting a huge amount of focus in today’s media coverage.

And it’s not good.

Whoever said ‘all press is good press’ was not considering these very real headlines I came across today:

• I tried Google’s new Pixel Studio app. It created an image of SpongeBob dressed as a Nazi
• Google’s AI ‘Reimagine’ tool helped us add wrecks, disasters, and corpses to our photos
• Google’s Pixel Studio image generation can easily go off the rails

I’m sure there are more headlines out there just like these, but these were the first three I saw.

Google has been sending a canned response to journalists who reached out for comment. Here’s what they sent our sister site 9to5Google:

Pixel Studio and Magic Editor are helpful tools meant to unlock your creativity with text to image generation and advanced photo editing on Pixel 9 devices. We design our Generative AI tools to respect the intent of user prompts and that means they may create content that may offend when instructed by the user to do so. That said, it’s not anything goes. We have clear policies and Terms of Service on what kinds of content we allow and don’t allow, and build guardrails to prevent abuse. At times, some prompts can challenge these tools’ guardrails and we remain committed to continually enhancing and refining the safeguards we have in place.

So yeah, creating problematic content is against Google’s policies. Oops.

AI image generation is risky, and Apple knows it

All of this negative press plaguing Pixel 9 review day is almost certainly a big part of why we haven’t seen Apple’s image generation tools in iOS 18.1 yet.

Apple knows that, once it opens Pandora’s box and ships AI image generation, it will be vulnerable.

Users will try creating the sort of troublesome content on iPhones that they’re doing with Pixels. And if they succeed? Apple’s in a PR mess.

I have no doubt the company knew all of that before debuting Genmoji and Image Playground at WWDC in June.

But I have to think today’s headlines will give Apple even more hesitation before shipping its AI features.

Hesitation that may not go away before the end of the year, even.

Will Apple Intelligence image features like Genmoji arrive this year?

iOS 18.1’s public launch is still a ways off. It will probably arrive near the end of October.

However, with each new beta released, it seems less likely that we’ll be getting Apple Intelligence’s image tools any sooner than iOS 18.2 in December.

Who knows? Maybe the wait will be even longer.

If Apple needs additional time to get AI safety measures in place, we may have to wait until 2025 for Genmoji and Image Playground.

All that to say: I wouldn’t get your hopes up for AI image generation from Apple any time soon.

Features like Genmoji might help sell more iPhone 16 models, but Apple also wants to ensure it avoids a PR disaster.

When do you think Apple’s image generation tools will release? Let us know in the comments.