Google Pixel 9's AI Magic Editor: Revolutionizing Photography and Raising Ethical Concerns

Is the Pixel 9 AI-powered image editor too realistic?

The images being shared from those using the Pixel 9 'Reimagine' feature are very impressive, but will people be able to tell if a real image has been manipulated by AI? AI image generators have been growing in popularity and power over the years, but an upgraded tool from Google is showing just how powerful - and potentially dangerous - these features have become. Those with early access to the Pixel 9 smartphone have been showcasing the power and realism of the latest version of Magic Editor, a feature that lets users edit photos with the power of AI. This isn't exactly a new concept - AI image editors are available online and powerful text-to-image generators have been showing their capabilities for years. The Magic Editor is a combination of both of these tools and is being praised for its ability to quickly create realistic edits to existing images. Users can simply tap a section of the image and then then type in what they want added - the Magic Editor does the rest. This is thanks to the "Reimagine" feature for the Pixel 9, which uses the power of Google's flagship AI model Gemini to accurately interpret user requests. The examples being shared online are very impressive. Adrian Weckler of the Irish Independent shared various examples of AI-created additions being easily added into real images. But the power of this feature is also a concern, as it shows just how difficult it is becoming to tell apart an AI-generated - or AI-enhanced - image compared to a real one. These types of tools are already being used to create deepfakes - realistic images of people or events that are actually fake. A lack of guardrails? The power of this Reimagine feature becomes even more of an issue with some of the more controversial examples people have shared. This tool isn't just able to add positive additions to an image, it can also be used to add negative, disturbing additions too. An example from The Verge shows a regular image of a street being 'enhanced' with the wreckage of a bike and a car, complete with appropriate lighting and shadows to blend into the image better. This report said it was easy to add car wrecks, smoke bombs and drug paraphernalia to various images. This presents serious risks for the future, an image of someone's room can be adjusted to add contraband, a street can be shown to appear more dangerous than it actually is, there are various ways this type of tool can be abused. Google isn't the only company dealing with the risk of people abusing their AI-powered image tools. Grok's recently unveiled text-to-image generator was shown to have few guardrails on launch, letting users post everything from cartoon characters holding assault rifles to US presidential candidates committing acts of terrorism. Imagen 3, Google's latest text-to-image generator, has also been shown to have guardrail issues too, letting users generate images that resemble copyright-protected characters such as Sonic the Hedgehog, Mario and Mickey Mouse. A Google spokesperson told The Verge that it has clear policies and terms of service on what kinds of content is allowed and that it has guardrails to "prevent abuse". "At times, some prompts can challenge these tools' guardrails and we remain committed to continually enhancing and refining the safeguards we have in place," the spokesperson said. Time will tell if Google manages to improve its guardrails before the Pixel 9 smartphone becomes generally available. But the rapid evolution of these AI systems suggests this problem will keep on growing as the technology becomes more advanced, and the influence of AI may become harder to spot in images. Find out how emerging tech trends are transforming tomorrow with our new podcast, Future Human: The Series. Listen now on Spotify, on Apple or wherever you get your podcasts.

Google's AI Now Lets You Wildly Alter Photos Right in Your Camera App

The feature, introduced alongside Google's launch of its Pixel 9 smartphone earlier this month, could easily unintentionally undermine the authenticity of photos by allowing anybody to tinker with them right inside the camera app. Examples shared by The Verge's Chris Welch included a photorealistic image of the aftermath of a bike and car collision, a lion prowling behind a locked gate, and a "mystery liquid gushing out of a Metro-North train." Throughout its testing, The Verge encountered very few guardrails for the new feature, easily adding "car wrecks, smoking bombs in public places, sheets that appear to cover bloody corpses, and drug paraphernalia to images." Meanwhile, a Google spokesperson pointed the publication to its Terms of Service in a statement -- which outlined exactly the kind of images The Verge was generating as being forbidden -- arguing that the company remains "committed to continually enhancing and refining the safeguards we have in place." In a separate test, The Verge uploaded an edited image to an Instagram story to see if Meta would apply a tag to notify other users that it was fake, but the system failed to do so. That shouldn't come as much of a surprise, considering Meta's "Made with AI" label initiative has turned out to be a dud, and was even caught mistakenly labeling real photos as being AI-generated. In short, while tampering with photographs using generative AI has been around for quite some time now, Google's latest photo editing tool doubles down by making the tech incredibly accessible -- setting a dangerous precedent for a future filled with faked images. But considering former president Donald Trump has already resorted to weaponizing the tech to take potshots at his rival Kamala Harris, we're already there.

The Google Pixel 9 has destroyed reality: we will never be able to trust a photo again - Softonic

As the Pixel 9 reviews come to light and the phones reach their buyers (they went on sale yesterday), an uncomfortable truth begins to circulate on the internet: it will be difficult to trust an image again because of AI and Google. According to The Verge, in just 10 seconds they were able to create each of these images with the Reimagine tool from the Magic Editor of Pixel 9. They are sharp. In full color. They are high fidelity. There is no suspicious background blur, no revealing sixth finger. These photographs are extraordinarily convincing, and they are all fake. Anyone who buys a Pixel 9 (the latest model of Google's flagship phone, available now) will have access to the easiest and most casual user interface for creating top-notch fake images, integrated directly into their mobile device. It is almost certain that this will become the norm, with similar features already available on competing devices and expected to be extended to others in the near future. Photography has been used in the service of deception since it exists. But it would be false to say that photographs have never been considered reliable evidence. Everyone reading this article in 2024 has grown up in a time when a photograph was, by default, a representation of the truth. A scene staged with cinematic effects, digital photo manipulation, or more recently, a deepfake, were potential deceptions to consider, but they were outliers in the realm of possibility. Specialized knowledge and specialized tools were needed to sabotage intuitive trust in a photograph. Falsification was the exception, not the rule. All of this is about to change: the default assumption about a photo is that it is fake, because creating realistic and believable fake photos is now trivial. As they say in The Verge, we are not prepared for what will happen next.