Google Pixel 8 'Magic Editor' reportedly blocks these edits

Here’s a crux of the article in video form:

Google apparently blocks edits to images in certain situations with the Photos app’s Magic Editor on its Pixel 8 series. The AI editing tool was announced back in May alongside the Unblur tool at Google’s I/O event. At present, the tool is exclusive to the Pixel 8 series. But you can keep track of its availability on other Pixel devices here.

In an APK teardown of Google Photos v6.60, the folks over at Android Authority discovered that Google has restricted edits in the following circumstances:

• Photos of ID cards, receipts, and other documents that violate Google’s GenAI terms.
• Images containing personally identifiable information.
• Human faces and body parts.
• Large selections or selections that need a lot of data to be generated.

When performing restricted edits, the application throws an error message noting that Magic Editor cannot perform the certain task. For instance, when trying to use Magic Editor to make edits to an ID card, it’ll bring up an error message stating “Magic Editor can’t edit photos of ID cards, receipts, and other documents that violate Google’s GenAI terms. Try Magic Editor on a different photo.”

These restrictions are not surprising though. For a company as big as Google, the last thing it wants is someone misusing its AI tools to cause harm or commit fraud. In fact, in a separate APK teardown, the publication also revealed restrictions on certain words used for the potentially upcoming text-prompt-based generation abilities to Magic Editor.

So it’s clear that Google, along with other mainstream generative AI software developers, are treading cautiously. A slight misstep might result in legal battles that the company would love to steer clear from. You can check out Android Authority’s Google Photos v6.80 APK teardown findings for more details.