Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference—the WWDC—kicks off next week with a keynote on Monday at 10 a.m. that is expected to put AI front and center. iOS 18 and macOS 15 are expected to integrate AI into Siri and many other apps we use. As to how useful this will be, who can say? However, having Siri finally understand the context of what we are saying will be a giant leap forward.
Apple, the master of strategic timing, is known for hanging back and letting others leap first, then surpassing them with a superior implementation of their Innovation du Jour. I anticipate next week’s announcements will follow this pattern. However, it’s hard to ignore the recent trend of almost every app and service on the planet adding the letters “AI” to their feature sets. This AI wave has been sweeping the tech world, and the results range from the impressive to the unnecessary. For example, do we really need AI assistance for Zoom meetings? The answer is a resounding no.
While our AI Overlords have not tried to eliminate us yet — watch the Dr. Who episode “Dot and Bubble” for a particularly unsettling look at why that might happen — there is an ever-growing list of web and app-based AI tools that I rely on to help me get work done, and easily accomplish things I would previously not even attempt. Let’s take a look at some of them.
AI-powered proofreading, editing and writing: Grammarly
After decades as a writer and editor, I feel confident in both. Even so, I find Grammarly to be invaluable. I have used this app/web service combination for years, primarily as a “second set of eyes.” As Mark Twain wrote (and yes, he actually wrote this): “You think you are reading proof, whereas you are merely reading your own mind…” In other words, only a fool tries to proofread their own material. When I write or edit, I do a first pass, let Grammarly take a shot, and then adjust as needed for the third and last round. It’s how I wrote this post!
As you would expect, Grammarly is effective at catching grammar mistakes, but it also can detect variances in tone, tense mismatches, “insensitive language” (if you have it set to look for that), formatting inconsistencies like straight vs. curly quotes, and so much more. And that was before they added AI about nine months ago. Grammarly will also suggest a better way to state something, often resulting in further refinements. (The AI tends to be on the florid side, which “regular” Grammarly then clarifies. It’s a hoot to watch.) While Grammarly’s AI cannot detect my unique way of speaking — my tone — via the written word, I expect that will change… probably sooner rather than later.
I prefer what Grammarly suggests about one-third of the time, but more often than not, I use its suggestions as a springboard to write something of my own that I like better. I may also take a section of what Grammarly offers and fill in the rest myself. It’s been a boon for me, especially on tight deadlines. In addition to suggestions, Grammarly’s AI can create text for you after you tell it what you want to write about. While I have rarely used this feature, I can see its appeal to some users for whom writing is more of a chore than a joy.
There are similar AI-powered writing aids, such as Draftsmith and PerfectIT, but Grammarly beats them both in ease of use and in usage itself. The other tools only work in Microsoft Word, while Grammarly works inside every app that features text: word processors, Messages, Mail, Notes, etc. If you find Grammarly’s presence intrusive in a particular app, you can turn it off temporarily or permanently.
Grammarly works on all platforms; on the Mac, there is the Grammarly Desktop app and a companion app for Safari. You can use it for free, but if you like it as much as I do, the $144/year Premium version is well worth it, as the Premium version is where the AI magic happens. I created this unique referral link just for my Substack subscribers. If you sign up, we will both get a free month. Sweet!
AI Speech-To-Text Transcription
Speaking of text, sometimes I need to take an audio recording of someone talking and derive a text transcription of what they said. For example, Ellen recently completed work on a feature article for a magazine, which required her to conduct extensive interviews via Zoom. The magazine’s editors required a text transcription of everything they said… gulp! In the past, that would have either required hiring an outside service or me spending days laboriously typing everything I heard. (I have done this; trust me, it is not. fun.)
Now, thanks to the new Mac-only AI Transcription app that uses the “Whisper” AI engine, it took minutes instead of days, and the results were totally usable. The text is initially rendered in one solid text block with no carriage returns. However, punctuation is present, and with some training and minor adjustments, the text can be broken into paragraphs. The app’s interface is clean and easy to understand, and I was up and running in less than two minutes after initial installation. This app is a steal at only $9.99 on the Mac App Store!
AI-powered photo manipulation
This last section has been the most impressive to me: the ability to do things with photos and graphics never possible before. Most major graphics apps, such as Photoshop, Affinity, Luminar and Pixelmator, have incorporated AI into their software over the last year, with mixed results. (Photoshop’s new “Neural Filters,” particularly, are clumsy and hard to use.) In a fascinating twist, several websites beat these apps in ease of use and overall results, mainly due to each one focusing on only one aspect of photo manipulation.
I recently was asked to create a memorial video montage for a beloved friend and mentor to many of us. While doing so, her family sent me scans of hundreds of photos, many of which were blurry, degraded, faded, full of speckles, tears and even coffee stains. If I had to clean them up in Photoshop one at a time, I would not have finished on time. Instead, I used the following services, which are now my favorites; all of them require either low-cost subscriptions or purchasing “credits” to use:
• For blurry and low-res photo enhancement: Remini AI
Remini is a website that uses AI magic to dig details out of even the blurriest photos I’ve uploaded. It doesn’t work on every photo, but when it does? Amazing. If you subscribe, you can also have fun with the photos you upload, such as changing the background or color scheme. It’s a lot of fun to use!
• For restoring color to severely faded photos: Palette
Several of the featured photos in the montage were so faded they looked to me as if they might have originally been in black and white. On closer inspection, I could see they were color photos possibly exposed to sunlight for years. No matter: Palette brought all the color back in only one click! Interestingly, I tried using Photoshop’s “Color Restore” Neural Filter to do the same thing, and after 15 minutes of futzing with it, I got… something. However, it wasn’t even close to what Palette did in 15 seconds. Palette can also “colorize” actual b&w photos with very satisfying results.
• For removing unwanted watermarks and artifacts: PixelBin
Sometimes, a treasured photo has a watermark on it or another type of artifact… it happens. And when it does, PixelBin makes it go away! Again, this is Tech Voodoo of the highest order. Should stock photo companies be afraid? Absolutely. However, my use was on the up and up, and it was a lifesaver.
That’s a wrap!
Like everything else in our digital world, a new type of technology can be used to help people or to hurt them. I haven’t discussed the implications of manipulating photos to create “deepfakes” or AI’s large language models stealing the work of creative artists or outright replacing them; that’s another column. For today, anyway, I am “embracing the change.” We’ll talk again next week after the WWDC. Who knows? Maybe Siri will write my column for me!
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Leigh Adams Edgar Johnson