Apple's Camera Chief Thinks AI Can Give You Superpowers The generative features in iOS 27's new Photos app will add fake pixels to some of your shots, but Apple's Jon McCormack says the company isn't using AI "for the sake of AI." What even is a photograph these days? As tech giants pack generative AI capabilities into our phones and their camera software, the line between what is a real image and what isn't continues to blur. Phones from Google and Samsung, for example, now come with features that let you drastically alter a photo by erasing people, moving people around in the shot, and even adding new objects to the scene. Apple is getting in on the action by adding new generative features to its Photos app, though the company's iPhone camera chief, Jon McCormack, stresses that Apple is taking a more measured approach than its competitors and isn't "doing AI for the sake of AI."

Artificial Life (ALife) as an interdisciplinary field draws inspiration and influence from a variety of perspectives. Scientific progress crucially depends, then, on concerted efforts to invite cross-disciplinary dialogue. The goal of this paper is to revitalize discussions of potential connections between the fields of Computational Creativity (CC) and ALife, focusing specifically on the concept of Open-Endedness (OE); the primary goal of CC is to endow artificial systems with creativity, and ALife has dedicated much research effort into studying and synthesizing OE and artificial innovation. However, despite the close proximity of these concepts, their use so far remains confined to their respective communities, and their relationship is largely unclear. We provide historical context for research in both domains, and review the limited work connecting research on creativity and OE explicitly. We then highlight specific questions to be considered, with the eventual goals of (i) decreasing conceptual ambiguity by highlighting similarities and differences between the concepts of OE and creativity, (ii) identifying synergy effects of a research agenda that encompasses both concepts, and (iii) establishing a dialogue between ALife and CC research.

This paper presents the design and initial assessment of a novel device that uses generative AI to facilitate creative ideation, inspiration, and reflective thought. Inspired by magnetic poetry, which was originally designed to help overcome writer's block, the device allows participants to compose short poetic texts from a limited vocabulary by physically placing words on the device's surface. Upon composing the text, the system employs a large language model (LLM) to generate a response, displayed on an e-ink screen. We explored various strategies for internally sequencing prompts to foster creative thinking, including analogy, allegorical interpretations, and ideation. We installed the device in our research laboratory for two weeks and held a focus group at the conclusion to evaluate the design. The design choice to limit interactions with the LLM to poetic text, coupled with the tactile experience of assembling the poem, fostered a deeper and more enjoyable engagement with the LLM compared to traditional chatbot or screen-based interactions. This approach gives users the opportunity to reflect on the AI-generated responses in a manner conducive to creative thought.

A wandering delivery robot found its way into the woods of Northampton in the United Kingdom. A wandering delivery robot found its way into the woods of Northampton in the United Kingdom. It's not every day you cross paths with a wandering robot in the woods. Matthew McCormack wasn't hallucinating when he came across a delivery robot in the woods of Northampton in the United Kingdom. "I spotted the robot while cycling in Lings Wood," he told NPR over email.

This paper examines five key questions surrounding computer generated art. Driven by the recent public auction of a work of "AI Art" we selectively summarise many decades of research and commentary around topics of autonomy, authenticity, authorship and intention in computer generated art, and use this research to answer contemporary questions often asked about art made by computers that concern these topics. We additionally reflect on whether current techniques in deep learning and Generative Adversarial Networks significantly change the answers provided by many decades of prior research.

Apple has been on a hiring spree and John Giannandrea, Google's former head of search and artificial intelligence has recently joined Apple as the head of AI department. Bloomberg reports that Apple has hired Jon McCormack, former Amazon CTO as vice president for a software role. McCormack has also worked at Google as an executive in the Advanced Technology and Products group and at HP where he was the global head of software. The reports aren't that clear but Apple told Bloomberg that it has hired the former Amazon CTO. McCormack has recently changed his title on LinkedIn.

The legacy of fake news has created renewed demand for reliable online news distribution. This is where Flipboard, one of the first digital news curators, is finding a niche. Launched in 2010, the Palo Alto-based news aggregator provides a digital magazine-style content platform that it claims is used by more than 100 million people each month. Flipboard expects to hit profitability in 2018, a result the company says, of connecting millions of people to publishers--a high percentage of whom are affluent (and human) audiences that advertisers crave. Flipboard is depending on cloud applications and ad tech analytics to make sure the content from its advertisers and publishers is being read by real people.

Artificial intelligence is becoming commonplace, from your smartphone and your Amazon account to the driverless cars that will soon grace public roads in Australia. Often, the response to this reality is one of trepidation and concern, about mass unemployment and the dominance of Big Tech. "Art is one of the last domains in AI where there is an optimistic view on how humans and machines can work together," says Dave King, founder of Move 37, a creative AI company. He says creativity is not a God-given thing. It's a process, and it takes practice.

Evernote decided last year that it wanted to move away from running its own data centers and start using the public cloud to operate its popular note-taking service. On Wednesday, it announced that the lion's share of the work is done, save for some last user attachments. The company signed up to work with Google, and as part of the migration process, the tech titan sent a team of engineers (in one case, bearing doughnuts) over to work with its customer on making sure the process was a success. Evernote wanted to take advantage of the cloud to help with features based on machine learning that it has been developing. It also wanted to leverage the flexibility that comes from not having to run a data center.

There are eyes on you, behind the bright lights and mirrored panels. Pick up a boot and a camera will make sure you don't slip it into your bag. Cross the threshold into a department store and there is a tacit understanding that you will be watched, but new technology is leading retailers to grow a different set of peepers – eyes less focused on shoplifting and more interested in your age, sex, size, head, shoulders, knees and toes. A few months ago, IT firm Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) put out a report that claimed around 30% of retailers use facial recognition technology to track customers in-store. It is technology that can identify people by analysing and comparing facial features from a database.