Apple's week January 16: AI & creativity

Apple Creator Studio will help many find more creative projects

Apple had quite a busy week with some very uneven press releases. One was two paragraphs and incredibly vague, while the other was pages long and filled with details about an upcoming release.

I've already shared many of my thoughts on the AppleInsider Podcast, but I'll share some here. It's an interesting week for Apple, and I wonder what it might mean for its future.

Here's the news of the week:

Apple's Gemini deal

This bit of news has caused quite a lot of confusion and speculation considering it emanates from a two-paragraph joint statement. Which is probably the issue, considering the joint statement didn't provide much, and if anything, was so vague it created several different interpretations.

The only thing that was around to help us was our previous coverage and rumors. Considering Gurman's history, we can assume the detail found in his posts are accurate whether his opinions on those details are irrelevant.

It seems that the deal has gone through, whether it's $1 billion or $5 billion doesn't matter, it's just trading funds from the Google Search deal regardless. Google seems to be providing a 1.2 trillion parameter version of Gemini that has been custom-built to work in Apple's servers, and Apple gets to train its models with it.

To reiterate, Gemini will not be included in Apple Intelligence, as far as we can tell, and the only thing the end user will interact with is the newly trained Apple Foundation Model. What's running on iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Vision Pro, and in Apple's Private Cloud Compute servers will be Apple Foundation Models, and have nothing to do with Google.

I trust Apple's deal to ensure that user privacy and security are maintained. Even in the few words Apple shared on the deal, it confirmed that Apple Foundation Models would be the endpoint and the only thing running these systems.

Ignore the conspiracies and terrible headlines and trust that Apple will continue to be the safe space from invasive advertising and AI. Sure, we'll have AI tools to use in various apps or across the system thanks to app intents, but none of that will gather user data for training, advertising, or any other reason.

Even Google can't make that guarantee as it offers a more "personal" Gemini that latches onto your YouTube, Photos, and Gmail. Google's only promise there is that they'll do their best to ensure any gathered data doesn't have personally identifiable information.

Between the two systems, the choice is clear. Wait patiently for Apple to release its app intent systems and rely on that, not Gemini.

If you've been following along with everything I've been covering in this area, I'm happy to say it's not far from what I've been trying to surmise from all of the rumors. The only thing that I got wrong was that I believed it a silly rumor that Apple would pursue this deal with Google considering its history didn't align with that. However, the mistake I made was mostly because I didn't believe that Apple would tie itself to Google again, even as rumors suggested that Rockwell was pushing for it.

Thankfully, that is only a small portion of this entire situation, and the end result remains the same, even if Apple Foundation Models are trained by Gemini for now, what Apple releases this spring will be a shift in the industry. On device, private, and secure AI is possible, and Apple will be at the forefront of that.

Apple Creator Studio

The last thing that kept me returning to my Mac mini from time to time is Pixelmator Pro, so when Apple Creator Studio was announced, I was all in. Sure, it's yet another subscription, but that single app would justify the $130 per year, let alone everything that comes with it.

While I currently don't get any use from Logic Pro or Final Cut Pro, I will attempt to find ways to use them. Perhaps it'll be interesting to try and edit some home video for the family or produce some new music for the podcast.

The new subscription includes six apps and add-ons for the iWork suite. Apple detailed each app's upgrades and differences in the announcement, so I won't get too into it here.

Overall, I find the subscription very worth it, even in its initial iteration. I expect Apple will continue to add apps and features to this bundle over time, so it'll only improve in value.

At the least, it means I'll finally get access to Pixelmator Pro on iPad, and I'm excited to see what this means for my workflows. If it is what I expect, then I'll be able to abandon the Affinity suite entirely.

It's not that I dislike third-party apps, but I've found that I enjoy using whatever Apple apps there are for a specific use case. If I need a third-party app, it's usually because it exists outside of Apple's general use case for its apps and ecosystem.

Photomator still exists, and I hope it will continue as a simple photo LUT editor. Pixelmator Pro, however, is perfect for what I need to develop work-related images. Apple has a good set of professional tools in its hands, let's hope this trend continues and it grows its portfolio.

I will never argue against more first-party Apple apps. I wonder if 2026 will reveal any more.

A cat with half black and half brown fur on its face, a slight red light shining on it from ambient lighting — Harvie isn't worried about Gemini training AFM