We’ve all been using photo filters and related tools for years to make our faces, food, and fall decor look their best. AI tools demonstrably manipulate photos in fundamental ways that go far beyond better lighting and red-eye removal.
Google Photos has several generative AI features that can alter an image, but Google will now mark on a photo that you used those tools in the name of transparency.
Starting next week, any photo edited with Google’s Magic Editor, Magic Eraser, or Zoom Enhance tools will display a disclaimer indicating this fact in the Google Photos app. The idea is to find out how easy it is to use AI editing tools in ways that are hard to spot by looking. Google hopes the update will reduce any confusion about the authenticity of images, whether innocent or done with malicious intent.
Google already flags a photo’s metadata if it has been edited with generative AI using technical standards set by the International Press Telecommunications Council (IPTC). The metadata is only visible when examining the data behind a photo and is only relevant for research and archiving purposes. But the update digs out that bit of metadata to show along with the more mundane details of an image, like the file name and location.
AI image mania
Google also does not single out its AI tools for the transparency initiative. Each mixed image has a disclaimer. For example, the Google Pixel 8 and Pixel 9 smartphones have two photo functions: Best Take and Add Me. Best Take will merge several photos of a group of people into one image to show everyone at their most photogenic, while Add Me can make it look like someone is in a photo who wasn’t there. Since these are in the field of synthetic image creation, Google has decided to give them a tag indicating that they are constructed from multiple images, but not with AI tools.
You probably won’t notice the change unless you decide to look at a photo that seems a little too amazing, or out of an abundance of caution you want to check everything you see. Professionals will likely appreciate Google’s move, as they don’t want to undermine their credibility in a dispute over whether they used AI. Relying on a photo isn’t always enough when AI tools are good enough to trick the eye. A tag or lack thereof from Google can increase trust in a photo.
Google’s move points to what the future of photography and digital media could be as AI tools become more common. Of course, this is also a marketing move. It’s a very small change to Google Photos in many ways, but by trumpeting it, Google looks like it’s responsible for AI when it actually is.