Apple is embracing the fantasy of AI photo editing

Apple announced a set of new AI-powered photo editing tools at WWDC 2026, adding to Clean Up, its object-removal feature first launched two years ago in the Photos app. It matters because Apple is now openly treating heavily edited images as “photos,” signaling a shift away from its earlier concern that generative editing could distort reality.

Apple’s feature showcase at WWDC 2026 didn’t flag which if these “photographs” are real or created with its new AI fakery. | Images by Apple / compiled by The Verge Apple used to question whether generative AI-powered editing features were worth the risk of distorting our perceptions of the world. Now it seems Apple no longer believes that photos should accurately capture reality. At WWDC 2026 , the company announced a host of new AI-powered photo editing tools . They give users effortless powers of manipulating images that Apple still refers to as "photos." Two years ago, Apple launched Clean Up - an AI-powered object removal tool in Apple's Photo app that's similar to the Magic Eraser feature in Google Photos. At the time, Apple software chief Craig Federighi said that it was important for the company … Read the full story at The Verge.