I didn't have time to set up a photoshoot with the family this year. At first, we would all wear tracksuits and pose in front of my car in a squatted position in honor of my Balkan ancestors. But no one felt it this year. Instead, I can allow the computer and the remote water-cooled data centers do my holiday bidding. I wish the people I care about for a happy holiday by sending something AI-generated.

Google and Apple have made a significant fuss about incorporating on-device artificial intelligence into their flagships. Google was the first to praise his abilities and spend most of the year convinced us that Gemini is the way of the future of Android. then, Pixel Studio launched at Pixel 9 smartphones. It is suitable for creating images of objects in different art styles and displaying them as if they were polished in Adobe Photoshop beforehand. It's also great for creating standard text, although it shows limitations when you try to deviate from the script.

iOS 18.2 is for iPhone 16and Picture Playground is part of the package. This is Apple's take on all attempts at generative AI. Like Google, the art produced by Image Playground also reflects Apple's art style. The app is great for creating portraits of people, especially the faces of people you've uploaded to Apple Photos. Image Playground picks the people you know you love the most and then lets you post a photo for inspiration. From there, you can add background details, adjust clothing options, and fine-tune facial features as you see fit.

Instead of a photo shoot with a family struggling with illness, I used Google Pixel Studio and Apple's Image Playground to create my annual holiday newsletter artwork. I'm still not convinced that this is a substitute for an actual photoshoot. But we've heard from Google and Apple all year about the innovation behind these image-making suites that can be used on our computers in our pockets. Why not try them while in dire straits?

Image Playground: Use this for faces

Surprisingly, Apple Intelligence, launched later of the year's timeline, is more human-friendly than Google's Pixel Studio. (Google says on a support page that it's "working on the ability to create human images, along with the ability to edit existing images with people.") Technically, Apple won this challenge because I can create a picture of my family without the physical position. in front of the camera. The only downside is that it's not about all of us taking a picture together; currently, it can only process one face at a time.

I already previewed how to use the Image Playground before it was launched in iOS 18.2. That experience taught me that less is more. It's best to start with a few variables and then slowly build it up from there, so that's what I did. I started with the face of the person I wanted to represent that was already recognized by Apple Intelligence: my son. Then, I selected the prefilled offering for "winter holidays" and let the AI ​​do its thing. He turned out to have brown eyes, so I asked him to switch to blue eyes to match him in real life. It may be a synthetic image, but that doesn't mean the likeness isn't there. Then I asked it for a scarf to cover the winter scene.

I agree with my husband, his birth father, about Image Playground's photo accuracy. When I asked her opinion, she said, “Very beautiful. It looks like him." In fact, despite the botched mouth area of ​​most photo products, the images are passable. Don't just zoom in. The way Apple Intelligence makes its teeth look surprises me; in one picture, it looks like all his teeth are missing, and I can see where the AI ​​tried to fill in. His eyes also struggled to materialize in some cases, and I found this to be a common issue for all images created. through Apple Intelligence on specific people.

The great thing about Image Playground is that it stores your deck of image prompt phrases so you can add and subtract as needed. I ended up sticking with the "winter holidays" + "scarf" terminology and then added the term "Santa hat" to introduce more Christmas cheer.

I was not satisfied with the sculptures of snow people that were created in the background of my images. Image Playground does a good job of putting together a generic-looking snowman on its own, like the kind you can buy a dozen greeting cards in bulk. But the snowman cannot rest as something in the background. Most of the time, he has thick eyes and a mouth but nothing else.

Image Playground is not good for creating text within an image. In all the cases I tried, it never worked. When I asked Image Playground to spell "Merry Christmas," it wrote pure nonsense instead. I tried several times to get it to produce something at least worthy of social media, but most of what Image Playground conjured up looked like the title image at the top of the article.

Pixel Studio: Use it for stickers

Google's Pixel Studio is better if you're trying to render art that's a little less obvious, even if it's clearly artificially generated. For starters, it still can't create an image like other people, so you're limited to whatever the app suggests you start with when you burn it. Some helpful prompts offered today include "cats," "dogs," and "Christmas tree inspiration."

Pixel Studio's offer to create a cat or dog can be useful if you have a pet around the house that will be the center of your artificially generated happiness. My cat has been gone for five years but remains in memory and AI (and in a box above the fireplace mantel). I asked Pixel Studio to create "a sleepy, tuxedo cat with green eyes and a pink nose wearing a Santa hat. There's a Christmas scene behind them. Below, there's text that spelled 'Catmas.'” I was really surprised when it was delivered.

I tried the same prompt in Apple Intelligence. I first realized that the entire phrase I had previously typed in Pixel Studio did not match the image description prompt in Image Playground. This includes everything up to "There's a Christmas scene behind them." I added another line, asking it to include text below that spelled "Catmas," Image Playground quickly responded that it was an unsupported ability. It makes a black and white tuxedo cat in a Santa hat, although the cat also wears a actually tuxedo. Pixel Studio kept the feline look and managed to spell "Catmas." The lesson is that you shouldn't be shy about focusing on your pets' annual holiday letter, even if it's AI-generated.

I wish I could get away with asking Pixel Studio for help making stickers in other languages. Pixel Studio was okay when I asked it to parse "feliz navidad," which is "Merry Christmas" in Spanish and is also the name of a popular Christmas song. But no matter how often I ask the AI ​​to parse something in Romanian, Pixel Studio outputs something unreadable. I find it a struggle to figure out the traditional Romanian aesthetic to maintain as well. In some cases, it makes the text look like trying to Cyrillic, which is used in Russian and Greek languages, with a Slavic accent point.

Apple Intelligence works best for the manufactured holiday experience because it creates the likeness of my family without overdoing the creep factor. Even if there are enough AI artifacts left, the image will pass because it's like an artist's attempt at a caricature. Like I said earlier, don't zoom in. Pixel Studio is better if you're looking for something more specific outside the realm of including people. It's not perfect for generating text, but if it's a phrase Gemini sees over and over again on Google—like “Happy Holidays” or “Merry Christmas”—it looks good enough.

In the end, both Image Playground and Pixel Studio renderings of Christmas leave something to be desired because of amazing valley effect. I'm curious to send it out to friends and family and survey their thoughts on our AI-generated appearance as a stand-in for the annual Christmas photo shoot. I'll let you know when I get feedback.