The era of AI photo editing is here

I had no problem photographing the steaming couple on a beach towel. They’re in the background of one of my vacation photos, and they really ruin the mood. The Google Pixel’s Magic Editor feature takes them out with a few taps, and guess what? I was fine with it. It’s the line I’m having trouble drawing.

My iPhone-shot, Pixel 8 Pro-edited vacation photos are exactly the kind of thing Google’s generative AI editing features are designed for. We went to a beach on Lake Michigan for sunset, and I had an adorable photo of my kid on my husband’s shoulders. It’s the kind of moment you want to crystallize and keep in a jar for the rest of your life.

Except for the few dinguses in the background. Three taps in Magic Editor and they’re gone. But while I’m there, I start thinking about other things in the scene I could change. What about the handful of cars in the parking lot behind them? And the trash can in the distance? Maybe I could emphasize the sunset glow a bit more?

I did some experimenting with the AI ​​tools and found that, yeah, can all those things. But can I call it a photo of our vacation with all those changes? Or have I gotten into the “it’s a memory, not a photo” zone? Then I got a little sick and immediately clicked the app off.

It’s about to get weirder. The Pixel 9 series launches on August 22, and will come with a whole new level of generative AI tools that let you “reimagine” entire sections of your photos. You’ll be able to use AI to add objects and scenery to images with text prompts, or squeeze everyone into a group shot by merging two different frames. It’s not just the background and lighting of your vacation photos that can be tweaked; you can change the location entirely. Cleaning up a few parked cars is nothing compared to what’s about to happen in a few days.

Like me, not everyone will be keen. In fact, some people are running as fast as they can in the other direction. iPhone camera app maker Halide just released a new mode called Process Zero that skips the AI ​​and multiframe processing, turning back the clock to the early days of phone cameras, before computational photography. And Gen Z is fueling a sort of vintage digital camera revival, seeking a grittier, lo-fi aesthetic that you just don’t get from a modern phone camera app optimized for boosting shadows, pumping saturation, and brightening faces.

Personally, I’d rather stick with the native camera app and squeeze the most out of every pixel. But it’s a telling response to the prevailing data-intensive technology, and it’s no different than the backlash over Google’s recent faux pas at the Summer Olympics. The company ran an ad featuring a father using Gemini to help his daughter write a fan letter to her track and field idol. It didn’t sit well with many people, who claimed that it was actually to write such a letter is actually the point. Google eventually pulled the ad.

The thing is, sometimes imperfection is the point. The work you put into writing a heartfelt letter, word after word, is what makes it meaningful. Smoothing out the edges takes away something essentially human from the final product. I think Gen Z’s attraction to disconnected, “dumb” digital cameras reflects a similar impulse. When everything looks too good, it feels less personal.

Like digital processing, we’ll all find our own comfort level with generative AI photo editing, because these tools certainly aren’t going away anytime soon. And for some types of photos, I guess I’ll just appreciate the option to trim away a distraction in the background. But I don’t need every photo to look polished and ready for a holiday card, any more than I’d write a letter to a friend the way I would, I don’t know, write a college application essay. Sometimes a little oomph is just perfect.