Apple’s Clean Up feature and an emotionless cat star in the latest iPhone ad
The ad shows a husband looking at his iPhone, sitting in a chair on the left side of the scene, while his wife is on the right side, sitting on a couch, reading a book. The couple’s cat Garrett is on the couch near the wife. The husband takes his iPhone, snaps a picture of his wife and the cat. By using his finger to draw a circle around the cat, the feline disappears, turning a photo of the wife and the cat into a picture of just the wife, reading a book.
The husband shows the AI-edited photo to his wife, which shows that the cat is gone. Putting on a sad face the wife goes back to her book and says, practically under her breath, “I always knew you hated Garrett.” The color drains from the husband’s face, and he stares at the cat on the couch. After all, Garrett really didn’t disappear in real life of course, only in the photo. The husband taps the screen on his iPhone, and the cat returns to the picture. That makes the wife smile, which makes the husband smile. Poor Garrett can only stare emotionless at the man who dared to remove him from a photograph.
To use “Clean Up,” pick a photo from the iOS Photos app, tap the “Edit” icon at the bottom of the display, which looks like three slider controls. Make sure the AUTO feature is on (the icon, near the bottom of the screen, looks like a magic wand). The last icon on the right of the display says”Clean Up.” Tap on it, use your fingernail to circle the item you want removed, and it is removed on your screen as AI magic creates the new background.
How Apple could add to the capabilities of the Clean Up feature
The ad is slightly over one minute in length and will probably be edited down to 30 seconds. You’ll probably see it this weekend while watching televised sporting events such as Major League Baseball.
Apple recently took another AI feature that debuted on the Pixel 6 line, added it to certain iPhone models, and gave it a different name. Google’s “Hold for me” uses AI to monitor a call when you’ve been put on hold. With this feature, instead of being forced to listen to horrible muzak or boring announcements, you can do what you want while on hold.
