The online conversation is intensifying around the question of what defines a photo when Artificial Intelligence plays a role in modifying it. Advanced tools like Google‘s Magic Editor on the Google Pixel 9 series and the Sketch-to-Image feature on the Samsung Galaxy S24 series are bringing this discussion to the forefront.
Many users believe it would be helpful if tech giants clearly indicated when an image has been generated or enhanced by AI. Google is addressing these concerns with a new update to Google Photos, which will show that the image was edited using generative AI. Google says this change will take effect next week.
Google Says It Will Include AI Info With Photos
“Photos edited with tools like Magic Editor, Magic Eraser, and Zoom Enhance already include metadata based on technical standards from the International Press Telecommunications Council (IPTC) to indicate that they’ve been edited using generative AI,” Google said in a recent blog post.
It added, “Photos edited with tools like Magic Editor, Magic Eraser, and Zoom Enhance already include metadata based on technical standards from the International Press Telecommunications Council (IPTC) to indicate that they’ve been edited using generative AI.”
Google says it will ensure that this information is displayed alongside details such as file name, location, and backup status in the Photos app.
Additionally, recognising that photos can often result from combining multiple images through features like Add Me or Best Take, the company will also include metadata to show that an image is composed of elements from different photos using non-generative features.
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Apple’s Craig Federighi Recently Went Candid About ‘Fantasy’ Photos In An Interview With WSJ
This move from Google comes shortly after Apple’s SVP of software engineering, Craig Federighi, told WSJ’s Joanna Stern earlier this week that Apple is concerned about generative AI features being used to modify images. He said, “There’s a great history to photography and how people view photographic content as something they can rely on as indicative of reality,” and that “it’s important to us that we help purvey accurate information, not fantasy.”
Per Federighi, Apple internally debated even about adding deatues like Clean Up. “Yeah, I would say, even the ability to remove that water bottle is one that there were a lot of debates about. Internally, do we want to make it easy to remove that water bottle or that mic because that water bottle was there–when you took the photo?” he said.
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