AI Phones From Google and Apple Will Erode Trust in Everything

tech.hindustantimes.com:

(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Alphabet Inc.'s Google is racing to stuff its products with the most advanced artificial intelligence features, including some that will make you question everything you see and hear online. Itsnew Pixel phonesmake it easy to manipulate photos, adding people who weren't in the original shot or movingtheir positions. You'll be able to record phone calls, albeit with a disclosure tothe person on the other line, and get a detailed summary of the conversation. These cool, if creepy, features point to a disconcerting direction that AI tools are taking us in as they get built into more phones. The easier it is to manipulate the content we capture on our devices, the harder it'll be to trust what we see on them too.

For the new Pixel 9 phones, which go on sale on Aug. 22, Google has concentrated most of its AI prowess — abetted by the powerful G4 chip inside the phone — on the camera. The Add Me feature is billed as an alternative to the awkward angles and poses of the selfie. You take a photo of a friend, then get them to take a photo of you. Google's AI stitches the two soit looks like you werestanding together.

In the age of social media, where the statistical probability of looking at an untouched photo has diminished considerably, isn't that going to make it even harder to determine what's real? Not at all, according to Google's Rick Osterloh, who took charge of Google's Android platform earlier this year. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, he said Google was simply allowing people to edit their real-life moments, and “store the memory how they want” — no different than Photoshop, he added.

It is in fact, very different. The vast majority of people who take photos with their phones don'tpay $23 a month to use Adobe Photoshop. But millions of people who are likely to buy new AI-enabled phones from Apple Inc., Samsung Electronics Co. and Google will be able to manipulate photos with a few taps. Apple's forthcoming iPhones will have a Clean