Did you know you can use an iPhone to make really terrible AI photos that could pose a danger to society? I’ll bet plenty of us know you can do it with a Pixel 9, though.
I’m talking about the Pixel 9’s new Pixel Studio and, by extension, the “Reimagine” tool, which is part of Google’s Magic Editor software. Using these, you can transform a photo into something else or even create a photo out of thin air, and it often looks very believable—even if it’s something that’s 100% not real in any universe.
Android & Chill
One of the web’s longest-running tech columns, Android & Chill is your Saturday discussion of Android, Google, and all things tech.
Google does this. You don’t even need a Pixel 9 to create AI photos from your mind using Google because Google’s ImageFX is a thing and it works on any and every smartphone that can use Google Chrome, which is all of them.
And forget Google for a minute. There are plenty of other companies with mobile-friendly websites that will let you do the same as Pixel Studio. I found several places online that would create a picture of a chicken committing an act of terrorism, and it only took a few minutes. No, I’m not telling you where to find them. You can use Google or as I did Bing. They’re not hard to find.
Fun fact: none of those places were Google because it won’t create anything, chicken or otherwise, committing terrorism. Google has rules its AI tools and people using them have to follow, and if you can find a way to make it break them, there are places you can report it so Google can try to fix it.
Remember, AI is dumb, not intelligent, so things will slip through the cracks. A Google spokesperson told the Verge, “At times, some prompts can challenge these tools’ guardrails, and we remain committed to continually enhancing and refining the safeguards we have in place.”
I don’t care about any of this. Shitty people with a shitty agenda will find a way to make shitty pictures and have been doing so for years and years. AI is a dumpster fire, but it’s not some magical tool that makes these things possible; it simply lets people do them without spending five minutes learning a different way.
Use common sense and never believe something that seems unreal or stupid. You’re not a robot, so use your brain, and everything will be OK.
What I do care about is all the pearl-clutching that happens whenever Google is involved. It’s good to hate Google for the really dumb and evil things it does, and we should hold it to a higher standard. Pretending that Google is at fault because bad people will do bad things is bad journalism, though.
You can use Bing or Duck Duck Go to find a website that works with your phone and do the same things Google’s Magic Editor can do. You can use a Samsung phone, a Motorola phone, or an iPhone. You can take Google completely out of the picture and get the very same kind of result, or an even worse result, because not every AI company has the same seemingly weak AI guardrails Google has in place.
When Apple releases its Image Playground this fall, people will show off pictures of pigs snorting cocaine or kids locked in cages or some other random terrible shit. What won’t happen is seeing tech publications writing and endlessly posting how bad Apple is for “allowing” it to happen.
The Google hate is often deserved. I do a fair share of it myself and think Google is not a super ethical or honest company. I’m just not about writing rage bait or trying to make you click by saying Google is responsible for something bad people have always done.
