Apple has just unveiled the public beta for iOS 18.2. If you’re eager to experience the newest Apple Intelligence features and beyond, we have an essential announcement to make. The image features, such as Genmoji and Image Playground, will be available on a waitlist basis in iOS 18.2, so you may experience a delay in gaining access. Here’s the explanation.
Insights on iOS 18.2’s new AI waitlist
Upon the introduction of iOS 18.1, which featured the first set of Apple Intelligence tools, Apple implemented a waitlist system. Fortunately, feedback indicated that most users received access fairly quickly to these AI functionalities.
The new waitlist for iOS 18.2 focuses specifically on the Apple Intelligence image tools, which feature:
- Genmoji
- Image Playground
- Image Wand
After installing the iOS 18.2 beta, you can access the Image Playground app or the Genmoji function within the emoji keyboard to request access to these new tools.
Once you’ve submitted your request, you’ll find yourself on Apple’s waitlist.
However, this time around, the waiting period could be longer compared to the AI tools introduced in iOS 18.1. It may last for several weeks.
But why the longer wait?
Apple seeks to exercise caution during this beta phase to ensure its AI image tools are performing well, yielding expected outcomes, and not being misused.
Waitlist reflects Apple’s commitment to ‘responsible AI’
Numerous incidents have emerged involving AI technologies being misused, particularly image generation tools. There have been instances of misleading deepfakes, inappropriate representations of well-known intellectual properties, and various types of unsuitable AI-generated content.
One of Apple’s principles of ‘Responsible AI’ is to ‘Design with care.’ Here’s what that entails:
Every step of our process, from design to model training, feature development, and quality assessment, includes precautions to identify any possible misuse of our AI tools that could lead to harm. We aim to continually enhance our AI functionality with input from users.
This principle is fundamental to the image tool waitlist introduced in iOS 18.2.
Apple is gradually granting access to these features and collecting user feedback throughout the process to refine its AI offerings before they are made widely available next month.
So while the waiting period may be longer, rest assured that the reasoning behind it is well-founded.
Have you been granted access to the image features in iOS 18.2? How long did you have to wait? Share your experience with us in the comments.
