Windows is getting its own Magic Eraser to AI-modify your photos

By wazup on February 23, 2024 Comments Closed / 57 views

The new Generative Erase is coming to the Photos app in Windows 11 — and Windows 10, too.

By Sean Hollister, a senior editor and founding member of The Verge who covers gadgets, games, and toys. He spent 15 years editing the likes of CNET, Gizmodo, and Engadget.

Selecting a dog’s leash with a tool and magically erasing it with — a:hover]:text-gray-63 [&>a:hover]:shadow-underline-black dark:[&>a:hover]:text-gray-bd dark:[&>a:hover]:shadow-underline-gray [&>a]:shadow-underline-gray-63 dark:[&>a]:text-gray-bd dark:[&>a]:shadow-underline-gray”>GIF: Microsoft

Google and Samsung aren’t the only ones baking magical AI selective photo erasers into their devices — they’re about to become table stakes for Windows PCs too. Microsoft has just announced Generative erase, a feature that lets you do similar things in the Photos app that comes bundled with Windows.

Above and below, you can see how Microsoft disappears a dog’s leash and some unintentional photobombers using the power of generative AI:

Selectively removing people from the background of a photo.

a:hover]:text-gray-63 [&>a:hover]:shadow-underline-black dark:[&>a:hover]:text-gray-bd dark:[&>a:hover]:shadow-underline-gray [&>a]:shadow-underline-gray-63 dark:[&>a]:text-gray-bd dark:[&>a]:shadow-underline-gray”>GIF: Microsoft

While that may not be quite as nifty a party trick as other AI fakery you’ve seen, you won’t need to buy a new Pixel or Galaxy to integrate this into your life, either. Microsoft says it’s not only rolling this out to Windows 11, but also backporting all of the Photos’ AI edit features to Windows 10, in addition to Windows 11 for Arm64 devices. Those include a background removal feature as well.

These tools are for Windows Insiders for now, though. Says Microsoft: “This update is beginning to roll out to Windows Insiders in all channels today (including Windows Insiders on Windows 10 in the Release Preview Channel). Make sure to update your app to version number 2024.11020.21001.0 or higher.”

The company’s blog post doesn’t say whether AI-edited photos will come with metadata or watermarks so you can distinguish them from unedited ones.