If you’ve ever been to Italy’s leaning Tower of Pisa, or similar tourist attractions, you’ve probably attempted to take that quintessential holding-up-the-tower photo. It’s a tricky shot to nail because you have to position yourself at just the right angle and just the right distance. And it could mean several takes before you capture just the perfect image.
Thanks to Google, you may never have to endure this sort of (first-world) struggle again. You probably only need a single photo because the tech giant has an AI-based tool known as the Magic Editor that is now available in Google Photos on the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro.
The Magic Editor uses generative AI along with AI processing techniques to help people make complex photo edits easily without the need of professional skills. It goes beyond lightening and brightening photos, although that’s part of it. In the case of the Tower of Pisa photo, you could reposition yourself, enlarge the tower, remove strangers from the background and even fill backgrounds.
But why stop there? Google says you can even change the color of the sky, if you please.
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CNET’s Patrick Holland used the Magic Editor to replace the ground with bricks. There weren’t any bricks at this park, but it does make the photo look better.
Pixel 8 AI: The Magic Editor and beyond
To be fair, the Magic Editor’s capabilities are currently limited on the Pixel 8 series. CNET Managing Editor Patrick Holland tested the editing tool on a handful of photos for his Pixel 8 review. In one photo, he removed a giant rock from the ground, and then went on to change the flooring from astro turf to brick – all from Google Photos, all within a matter of seconds.
However, he concluded that a majority of the Magic Editor-generated photos have flaws, and the tool currently is in a more experimental phase than some of the other ones Google debuted on the Pixel 8.
The Pixel 8’s Best Take uses AI to help you swap someone’s head from one image to another. There are a number of limitations, but it works quite well.
The normalization of fake content
False imagery and disinformation are already a pervasive problem that plagues various social media platforms. In recent years, Facebook, Twitter and TikTok have each been criticized for allowing the spread of misleading or false information on their sites, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 US presidential election. Some of these platforms have taken steps to label or remove such content. But they have also faced backlash from users and lawmakers who accuse them of censorship or bias.
“From a public policy point of view, there is no question that these tools [Magic Editor] will make it easier to produce disinformation by malicious actors,” said Korinek. “I don’t know the technical details yet, but I do hope that Google will add watermarks to images that have been edited to make it easier to verify what’s fake and what’s real.”
Do I expect the Magic Editor to be at the center of some disinformation campaign as large as the ones during the presidential election? Probably not.
But Google is paving the way for more inauthentic content online with native editing tools that are powerful enough to create an image entirely different from the original photo. Google has not only given us the tools to perfect reality but is normalizing the practice. Suddenly, we’re living in a world where every photo can be altered or manipulated in seconds – and I wish it weren’t so.
Article source: https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/the-google-pixel-8s-ability-to-perfect-photos-shows-ais-promise-and-peril/#ftag=CADe34d7bf