Samsung recently received some criticism after widespread reports that its camera software fakes zoomed-in images of the moon, but things can get a lot more disturbing. TO Edge reader wrote on Wednesday to tell us that the company’s software is adding teeth to photos of her seven-month-old daughter.
This reader says that he recently got an S23 Ultra and decided to try the Remaster feature in Samsung’s photo viewing app, Gallery. (It’s the default photo app for the phone, and the feature is available within the camera if you visit your photo gallery.)
They were expecting something similar to what Google Photos does, suggesting specific settings and filters, blurring images, and the like. Instead, they got the results you can see below, with the original image on the left and the “Remastered” one on the right.
So… this is nightmare fuel. Sure, he wipes away some unsightly snot (I can’t let the world think this baby isn’t ready for his close-up 100 percent of the time), but he also seems to look at the baby’s tongue and immediately jump to “I know what it should look like.” : a nice row of fully developed teeth!
The reader also sent us a video of the Remaster feature turning his daughter’s tongue into teeth in other image, which makes it seem like it’s not just a single glitch.
I was unable to reproduce these initial issues myself, using the same version of the Gallery app on a regular S22. I’ve tried remastering half a dozen baby photos (and even a screenshot of the updated, less-toothed version). sonic trailer) and never saw anything like what this user got. I also couldn’t find anyone else reporting this type of issue, so it’s impossible to say for sure what’s going on.
We have reached out to Samsung for comment but did not immediately hear back.
The Samsung website says the remaster feature “removes shadows and reflections automatically so your images look great.” Unlike Samsung’s explanation of the Scene Optimizer feature that added detail to the moon, Samsung’s description of the Remaster feature doesn’t even include any comments about “AI” or “deep learning.” It doesn’t even sound like the beautification filters we’ve seen on phones for years, with teeth whitening filters that maybe, possibly, could fail in such a disturbing way. Based on what Samsung wrote, I would basically expect it to tweak my exposure settings, similar to the “Enhance” feature in Google Photos.
So where do teeth come from?
The reader described the resulting image as “much more disturbing than a fake moon photo if you ask me,” and I somewhat agree: altered images of the moon look like slightly better images of the moon, whereas this is the moon incarnate. . disturbing tweet teeth.
However, I will say that there is a difference in context here. Fake moon happens automatically in the camera app if you have a certain feature turned on. Here, you still have to explicitly request a remaster (which you have the option to discard, leaving the original intact). The moon story sparked discussions about what exactly it means to take a picture, while this is mostly a story about an editing feature taking an overly aggressive bite. If Samsung were using AI to mug babies or give them teeth straight from the camera, we’d be having a very different conversation here, but for now, that’s not what’s happening. But I still hate looking at it.
