The Lattepunk Pixel 9 Pro Fold
Lattepunk
When does a photo stop become fake?
On August 14th, Google announced their latest and greatest phones for consumers to buy. Although they seem to only have 8% of the smartphone usage (in the US), they looking to change that with these new lineup. Personally, this thing is sick:
I think they nailed the folding phone design! Massive camera bump, but you got to take the good with the bad. Unless Apple makes a folding phone (which is rumored), this is how Android manufacturers take back the smartphone market. But, that’s not really what Google thinks will win them the market. Can you take a guess at what they think it is, reader?
Does it have anything to do with the Department of Justice suing Google for monopoly…
SPOT ON READER! A FUCKING I!!!
Jay Peters of The Verge wrote a good piece on it:
For the first 25 minutes of the show, Osterloh and his colleagues didn’t make any announcements about the Pixel 9 lineup, the Pixel Watch 3, or the Pixel Buds Pro 2. Instead, they highlighted things like Google’s investments in its tech stack and Tensor chips, how all six of its products with more than 2 billion monthly users (Search, Gmail, Android, Chrome, YouTube, and Google Play) harness the company’s Gemini AI models in some way, and how Gemini and Google’s AI tools are integrated with other Android phones that you can already buy. Even before showing demos on its phones, Google was showing its AI tools onstage on phones from Samsung and Motorola.
There are two main “A.I.” features that really catch my eye. Here’s Wes Davis from The Verge:
Google is adding a new Magic Editor option to “reimagine” a photo by typing out what you want to see and then letting the app transform parts of the image. You can do this with prompts alone or by selecting parts of the image — either by tracing your selection or tapping a region like the sky — and typing what you want to change or add. So, if you wanted to, you could totally replace the sky or other aspects of a background by describing something else entirely. Who needs a perfect day when you can make one, I guess?
Annnnnnnd:
Along the same “what is a photo?” lines as the new Magic Editor feature, the Pixel 9 camera’s “Add Me” option lets you easily take group photos without bothering strangers to do it for you. Just take a picture of your friends, then hand your phone off and step into the same spot they were in (using an AR overlay to guide the camera’s framing), and the camera will stitch the two images together afterward. The feature uses an AR overlay of the original picture to guide the framing of the second one.
These features may come off as cool or useful in a pinch, but something concerns me. AI is already in heavy usage in our lives, but how can you believe the photos you see online after this? So many things that we see are staged or photoshopped already. At least that takes some level of skill to achieve. When everyone has access to these tools, with an easy to use interface, the photos you will see on your feeds or receive in your messages are going to have a high chance of being modified. Not like a filter to make you look a bit cuter in that last selfie you uploaded (slayyyy), but adding people who weren’t originally in the photo!?
Is this what we want?
Why are you such a doomer, Luis? No one is going to use that. Besides, you said they only have 8% smartphone usage!
Good point user! Allow me to side track a bit. Have you heard of Black Forest Labs? They are the hot new open source AI image generator. Since it’s open source, it means that people could, in theory, use it to generate anything. You and I could do this ourselves. All we have to do is install it! From their Github page:
cd $HOME && git clone https://github.com/black-forest-labs/flux
cd $HOME/flux
python3.10 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e '.[all]'After you do that, in order to use it you just:
export FLUX_SCHNELL=
export FLUX_DEV=
export AE= I’m skipping over a few details, but you got this! That all made sense right?
Slow down there! What is this nonsense on my screen right now?
Exactly! You and I can’t generate images so easily, unless someone makes an easy to use tool for us. But what if, for some odd ass reason, you pay for a premium X account. You could just use Grok. You could produce images like this:
How many people do you think would manually install some AI app to do something with versus the people who would use one when it’s already included with your device/app/subscription? When people easily have access to this stuff, they are going to use it.
Since you’re a certified hacker now, here’s another cool Github page. You can take a picture of someone, essentially map it to your face, then proceed to look like that person in a video call. ArsTechnica has a nice write up on it. That’s scary if it was easy enough for you and I to do with little effort. Reader, I can’t stress this enough, it is little effort. When it’s no effort, there’s no reason not to use it.
By the way, that X image generator? It uses Black Forest Labs.
These “AI” tricks are already being used to scam people. NY Times has a story about how people are using AI Elon Musk to scam people out of their crypto and live savings. I’m the weirdo who reads about these things today. You’re going to see this stuff all the time.
These companies like to compete with each other. How often do you think these fake photos will show up if Apple were to do implement the photo features that Google are going to? At least with Apple, its not Artificial Intelligence, its Apple Intelligence.
These tools are super good at fooling us. When it’s done to scam people or nudify women, we shun it and expect someone to get in trouble. Why is it okay for us to fake every other moment of our lives, just to scam our friends?
Recommendations:
Read:
A.L.S. Stole His Voice. A.I. Retrieved It. (by Benjamin Mueller, NY Times) (It’s good to know that not all AI is bad)
Why Schools Are Racing to Ban Student Phones (by Natasha Singer, NY Times) (I read this is also happening in my home state of Connecticut)
After Nike Leaders Promised Climate Action, Their Corporate Jets Kept Flying — and Polluting (by Rob Davis, ProPublica)
Extreme Weather Poses a Challenge for Heat Pumps (by Chris Baraniuk, Wired)
'She Turned Ghost White:' How a Ragtag Group of Friends Tracked Down a Sex Trafficking Ringleader (by Samantha Cole, 404 Media)
The English Premier League Will Ditch Its Hated VAR Offside Tech for a Fleet of iPhones (by Ben Dowsett, Wired) (It’s wild how capable our devices are. Epic Games blew my mind a few years ago too.)
Want to Win a Bike Race? Hack Your Rival’s Wireless Shifters (by Andy Greenberg, Wired) (I know my phone, laptop, and car are up to date, but I need to worry about my bicycle too!?!?)
Mordhau pugilists raise thousands of dollars for a fellow player's medical bills in a fistfighting contest against cancer (by Lincoln Carpenter, PC Gamer) (I’ve never even heard of this game, but it warms my cold heart knowing people can still come together to do good)
Trump's Shooting Rattled QAnon Believers. Then They Doubled Down (by Ddavid Gilbert, Wired)
How greener schoolyards benefit kids — and the whole community (by Claire Elise Thompson, Grist) (We do so much in the name of “protecting children”, but can we at least “think about the children”?)
When Is “Recyclable” Not Really Recyclable? When the Plastics Industry Gets to Define What the Word Means. (by Lisa Song, ProPublica)
EVs Are Losing Up to 50 Percent of Their Value in One Year (by Alistair Charlton, Wired) (Maybe buy a used EV instead of new?)
The Adults Who Book Vacations Based on…. Pokémon? (by Salvador Rodriguez) (This is so cool! Almost made me want to install and play. Almost)
Endless Honking of Waymo’s Driverless Taxis Wakes a Neighborhood (by Sara Ruberg, NY Times) (my cousin in christ…what!?)
Listen:
Wall Street Journal podcast “The Future of Everything” has an episode on the Pokemon Go travelers. Listen to it!
Watch:
What if YouTube were like old school television? Try it out!
https://ytch.xyz/Play:
You can play the original Diablo in a browser. Be unproductive at work!
https://d07riv.github.io/diabloweb/This is also a weird/cool site I found. Interact with it.
https://www.thereisnoweb.site/If you enjoyed this, share it with someone.