AI not required for Photos Clean Up feat - Software Locked?

[Sheepish-Lord]

Apple Intelligence has been very underwhelming, most AI is for my use case, but I was excited for the Photos Clean Up tool. However, my iPhone 13 Pro doesn't support AI but my Mac's do so I decided to test it out and while doing so couldn't help but wonder why Google's Magic Eraser works on my 13 Pro but Apple's version doesn't. I wiped one of my devices, never enabled AI and found you can still download and use the AI clean-up tool. So why does Apple seemingly software lock this feature?

Apple's support document says it's clean up tool is powered by AI but if I don't need AI enabled then this it's not using any of the "extra" memory Apple claims it needs and is happening on-device. Again, why does a similar Google feature work on a device that Apple itself doesn't support? Turning off AI tells me it's not a hardware requirement...

Requirements to use Clean Up in Photos - Apple Support (BW)

Learn what you need to use the Clean Up feature in Photos on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac.

support.apple.com

 

[russell_314]

I suspect it’s the same reason that Apple doesn’t allow stage manager on my 4th gen iPad Air. The same reason I can’t play Resident Evil on my iPhone 14 Pro Max.

Apple sets a minimum requirement and if it doesn’t meet that, then you can’t do it. I bet there’s someone at Apple that tests software and if it doesn’t meet a certain usability requirement, they decide it’s not going to work.

 

[TonyC28]

Apple Intelligence has been very underwhelming, most AI is for my use case, but I was excited for the Photos Clean Up tool. However, my iPhone 13 Pro doesn't support AI but my Mac's do so I decided to test it out and while doing so couldn't help but wonder why Google's Magic Eraser works on my 13 Pro but Apple's version doesn't. I wiped one of my devices, never enabled AI and found you can still download and use the AI clean-up tool. So why does Apple seemingly software lock this feature?

Apple's support document says it's clean up tool is powered by AI but if I don't need AI enabled then this it's not using any of the "extra" memory Apple claims it needs and is happening on-device. Again, why does a similar Google feature work on a device that Apple itself doesn't support? Turning off AI tells me it's not a hardware requirement...

Requirements to use Clean Up in Photos - Apple Support (BW)

Learn what you need to use the Clean Up feature in Photos on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac.

support.apple.com

It will probably depend on how Apple defines "Apple Intelligence." If it's the Apple device using built-in features/software to make decisions in real-time, then many devices have been doing that for years with autocapitalization. I know that's a very simplified example, but it might help to find the line between good software and Apple Intelligence. If I could say "Hey, Siri, I only want to see myself in this picture. Remove that dude in the background wearing the blue shirt. Also, remove that box sitting on the table." I could see that relying on Intelligence in some way. But if I have to manually select the things to remove, that seems more like a software feature than it does an Intelligence feature.