Apple’s WWDC 2026 keynote was a snoozefest but one section left me rather perplexed. Early in the show Apple gave a performance about “child safety”. Apple ended the show with their new AI photo mangler.
That’s some serious cognitive dissonance!
404 Media recently reported on “How Deepfakes Tore a High School Apart”. Kids are using deepfake apps (from Apple’s App Store) to victimise their classmates. Adults are doing it too, of course. Deepfakes on demand are a cornerstone of new Twitter.
Apple front-loaded the keynote with a “we care about children” narrative that the media and fanboys lapped up. Then they advertised features that are suspiciously at odds (if you stop to think). It was a shrewd marketing stunt they’ve pulled before. In past events Apple has greenwashed the opening spiel before flogging a new iPhone model with an annual upgrade plan. Don’t worry, it’s all recycled. Totally eco-friendly to ship mass-produced luxury goods around the world to meet a manufactured demand. I’m sure Apple-branded slop will be harmless too, I remember someone telling me they care about this stuff.
Non-consent #
I’ve written about AI’s consent problem in more trivial context before. The AI industry simply cannot take “no” for an answer. You will use it. You will suffer it. You will be a victim.
Jared White makes a point on this topic:
I don’t know about y’all, but I think it should be
illegalto generate slop imagery of other people without their consent.Apple really fell down hard on this feature (and I’ve been hearing other podcasters saying the exact same thing). I hope they come to their senses and realize the “ick” isn’t worth a flashy keynote demo.
[@jaredwhite@indieweb.social]- Mastodon At the very least I implore the ‘court of public opinion’ to vilify generative AI. It’s seriously creepy, and not just the uncanny valley aesthetic.
Jared makes a stronger point on the Vibe Coded podcast. What happens when someone deepfakes a person with a disability that wasn’t visible in the original photo? Good chance it’ll erase their disability. That ain’t okay. That might be traumatic for some people.
But sure, Photoshop exists. We must accept that new technology can be misused, right? Seriously, whole lotta money riding on this! It’s just a tool.
AI apologists are quick to abandon all moral and common sense for the most mediocre slop. Whether or not Apple’s own app is capable of anything doesn’t matter. Its presence will only help to normalise the dehumanising efforts of the AI industry.
This future sucks! They did fix those rounded corners on macOS though.