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Creativity in a Straitjacket: Apple Intelligence
Apple’s AI writing tools will uncomfortably redefine human creativity.
Earlier this week, I wrote a post outlining my initial thoughts on Apple’s AI announcements at WWDC24. I stand by those comments, but wanted to update and elaborate on them after a short period of reflection.
I want to focus on Apple’s AI writing tools. These are a series of services that are baked into Apple’s core operating systems (MacOS, iOS and iPadOS). They can be invoked quickly and, at least in the demonstrations, act almost instantly.
Key to this service is the menu of preset options that the operating system presents to you. Do you want a more professional tone to your email? Why not add some backstory for the main character of your book? It can all be added into your prose with a click. Your work can be adjusted to the options surfaced in the menu. The operating system decides which prompts are surfaced to the user: if you’re writing a story, it might be more creative. Composing an email? It’ll suggest ideas to make you sound more professional.
Another feature allows users to fill out a form for what they want to put into an email and the…
