(San Francisco) Apple apologized Thursday after advertising for its new iPad Pro, which shows all kinds of objects representing human creativity crushed and replaced by the tablet, angered many artists angry against intelligence artificial (AI).
“The destruction of the human experience thanks to Silicon Valley”, for example reacted the British actor Hugh Grant on X, in response to the message presenting the new iPad Pro by Tim Cook, the boss of Apple.
“Creativity is part of our DNA at Apple, and it’s incredibly important to us to build products that help creative people around the world thrive,” said Tor Myhren, Apple’s vice president of marketing, at specialized site Ad Age.
“Our goal is to celebrate the myriad ways people express themselves and bring their ideas to life through iPad. We missed the boat with this video and we are sorry,” he added.
The company also decided not to broadcast the ad on television, as initially planned.
Apple spoke very little about AI on Tuesday, and did not mention generative AI, but this technology – which makes it possible to produce all kinds of content (text, images, videos, music, etc.) on a simple request in language current – is on the mind of all artists.
Hollywood actors and screenwriters went on strike for several months, demanding in particular protections against generative AI.
And many artists have filed lawsuits against major companies in the industry, like OpenAI (ChatGPT), accusing them of pilfering their works to train their generative AI models.
In Apple’s ad, a metronome, paint cans, piano, jukebox, mannequin, sculpture, cameras, books and many other objects are slowly crushed by a huge hydraulic press.
Then it rises to reveal, in their place, an iPad Pro.
All to the sound of the nostalgic pop song All I Ever Need is You by Sonny & Cher.
“Who needs human life and everything that makes it worth living? Immerse yourself in this digital simulacrum and give us your soul. Sincerely, Apple,” said, ironically, Ed Solomon, the screenwriter of Men in Blackon X.