What you need to know
- A person with a Galaxy S23 Ultra tried using Samsung’s Remaster tool in the Gallery app and received an unwanted result.
- When trying to clean up baby photos, the feature added teeth to their seven-month-old.
- Samsung’s official description of the Remaster tool states that it “removes shadows and reflections” to improve photo quality.
While some say the better software becomes, the better it’ll help, there are instances where it can become unwelcome.
A grossed-out reader wrote to The Verge about an instance where their Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra device added an unwelcome addition to their baby. They wrote about their experience using Samsung’s default photo library app, Gallery, and the Remaster tool to spruce up some photos. Their experience: teeth were added to a photo of their seven-month-old.
This is how gross Remastering is on the @SamsungMobile @Samsung #S23Ultra #SamsungS23Ultra. AI casually adding teeth to a 7 month old baby. NO ONE ASKED FOR THIS! pic.twitter.com/X9WUHWS2HrMarch 22, 2023
For context, the Gallery app’s Remaster feature was recently updated alongside the Korean OEM’s release of One UI 5. Samsung’s official description (opens in new tab) of the feature states that it now “removes shadows and reflections” for the betterment of your photos. It’s not clear if giving babies teeth is a result of the update, but the remaster tool appears to be a bit more aggressive now with photos in general. The reader’s tweet clearly displays the sheer difference in the photo of their child.
While the Remaster does clean up the cutie around their nose, the addition of teeth can’t exactly hide. The before and after tweet also shows a pretty drastic difference in the youngling’s eyes. This problem wasn’t a one-off, either, as the reader also submitted a quick video to The Verge of another instance where teeth were added to their baby.
Android Central’s Nick Sutrich has also experienced the existence of baby teeth in photos when they shouldn’t be present with his Galaxy S23 Ultra. However, The Verge attempted the same experiment using a Galaxy S22 to no avail, as did Android Central’s Derrek Lee.
If a photo were to be “remastered” and cleaned up to ensure only the best quality version of the image remains, why the addition of teeth and changes in facial features? If you were to consider Google’s similar Photo Unblur on the Pixel 7, nothing additional sneaks in when all you’re looking for is a cleaner picture.
Samsung’s photo processing ability on its latest flagship line received quite the bashing over moon photos not exactly being of the moon. This, in its own right, is a different conversation entirely, considering Samsung is using AI and machine learning to sort of fill in the missing pieces of a photo and “make dark scenes look brighter, food look tastier, and landscapes look more vivid.”
