Google 'Add Me' Explained: Should We Worry About Fake Photos?
Check out this photo looks normal, right? Well, guess what it never happened. Google has a new ad me feature that allows you to add the photographer into a group photo with the help of augmented reality and I had to try it out. Now I saw your comments during our pixel nine event live stream. A bunch of you were not having this feature. Jon Sims said just making photos fake for no reason. Fanon said, yep, let's fake photos even more. Chris Hallow said as a photographer, I hate you guys now. Strong wording, but I do hear you and I shared some of your sentiments at first. But let's talk about how I felt after my experiment. I tried to add me with my fellow CS A bra and faith and I have to say I wasn't as concerned after I tried it. I have more qualms about whether some of Google's other photo editing tools are allowing us to go too far with getting the perfect photo. But more on that later, here's how ad me works. You take two photos and they get blended together. We wanted our final shot to make it seem like a bra and I had our arms around each other. So she started by grabbing a picture of faith and I, we made sure to leave a space for Abra to pose in later. And I held my arm out for her. Then Abra handed me the phone to take the next photo. Faith and I could leave the frame because there were augmented reality stand ins of us showing where we were. I used these to position a bra in a way that looked the most like she was in the picture to begin with. She held her arm out for me and I took the second photo. Then the phone merged photo one and two to create a single picture with everyone. But a me did not layer the images how we had envisioned which we found very comical. Oh oh We can't do that. We tried the arm around each other photo a few times but ad me did not want to seem to make that one happen. So we kept experimenting. I found the ad me photos look the most realistic when there's a little bit of space in the between each subject. Like there is here. I think it actually looks like we were all together at the same time. And yes, you can double up with the same person. In this case. It's faith and her alter ego. Would this image convince you? She has a twin? What? Yeah. After this experiment, I feel less worried about a me, it's not perfect, which is reassuring. That means we can't quote unquote fake every possible scenario. And I do appreciate that. This feature allows you to add the photographer into a group photo in the spirit of inclusivity. I think that a me could be a great way for parents who always find themselves behind the camera to be included in those special moments with their kids, for example. But this isn't the only driving the debate around whether or not it's a good idea to be able to create photos of moments that didn't actually happen. Google's Magic editor has a new reimagined tool that allows you to enter prompts to transform your photo. My colleague Andrew Langson used it to change the background of his selfie to a cool brick wall with a sunset Magic editor also allows you to remove someone from the background of your photo. And Google has a best take feature that lets you curate a shot where everyone is smiling. These other features do make me a little worried while ad me seems aimed towards inclusivity. These other features seemed aimed towards allowing you to create a quote unquote perfect photo but doesn't part of the beauty of getting a really good shot lie in the fact that it doesn't happen all the time. Now, these features don't always result in entirely seamless photos when you look at Andrew's reimagined picture up close. For example, there are little details like the imperfect cutouts around his hair that give away the fact that it was edited. But some photos from the magic editor or best take do look pretty real. Now, don't get me wrong. I like playing with these features and I even like posting the photos if I disclose that they were doctored right now. You can only tell if they've been edited with A I by checking the metadata on your pixel phone. So it feels disingenuous to me to post them without disclosing that they were edited and just act like I'm capturing these pristine pictures all the time. Now, of course, there are bad actors that could use any of these tools in nefarious ways. Those aren't the kinds of situations I'm pondering today because they're obviously bad. I'm addressing the gray area we encounter in everyday life of whether or not we should use these tools to say make our Instagram feeds look perfect, but maybe my online presence is already kind of disingenuous because I'm really only posting about my best moments. These are questions I grapple with all the time and tools like the ones I've mentioned from Google are not going anywhere. So we'll have to continue to grapple with these questions of how comfortable we feel using them. If at all for years to come. This is only the beginning. A me is available on the entire pixel nine lineup. Now, thank you so much for watching