--- title: "Google Uses Magic of AI to Let You Insert Yourself Into Other People’s Family Photos" description: "Of the many features boasted by Google's new Pixel 9 smartphones, the option to digitally photobomb inside the camera app is quite hilarious." date: "2024-08-24" modified: "2024-08-24" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/google-pixel-ai-photobombing" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Google" tags: - "ai bros" - "google pixel" - "photography" - "the digest" --- # Google Uses Magic of AI to Let You Insert Yourself Into Other People’s Family Photos ![Of the many features boasted by Google's new Pixel 9 smartphones, the option to digitally photobomb inside the camera app is quite hilarious.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* ## Method to Madness Of the many [features boasted]() by Google's new AI-infused Pixel 9 smartphones, the option to digitally photobomb other people's family pics [Michael Scott-style]() might be the most hilarious. As [one of the *Daily Mail*'s reporters noted in her review]() of the Pixel's new "Add Me" feature, the tool is intended to let people taking group photographs put themselves into the picture so they don't feel left out. The methodology is pretty straightforward: one person takes a photo of another person or group of people and then has someone else take a photo of them standing off to the side of the original photo in the same spot. The two photos are then merged into one that is, ostensibly, supposed to look like the two photographers were actually standing together. As [demo videos]() [show](), the app overlays the original photo in the frame of the second one so that the photographer can direct where to stand to make it look natural — but as the *Mail*'s reviewer discovered, it can easily end up looking like a cheap Photoshop job. To test out the feature, *Mail* reporter Shivali Best went to London's Kensington Palace to get some tourists in on the experiment, and quicky found a willing American couple to help. Because the photos were taken outside, however, the otherwise subtle differences in the outdoor light that occurred in the minutes between the two photos made it hilariously obvious that the reporter and her subjects were not standing in the same place at the same time. https://www.twitter.com/MailOnline/status/1826311233764471243 ## Add-Ons While using "Add Me" as intended didn't really work for that reporter, others have found a sillier purpose for it: taking duplicate photos of oneself, to make it look like there are multiple copies of you standing next to one another. In a [review for the blog *TechRadar*](), writer Lance Ulanoff endeavored to see if the feature "could be employed for some less utilitarian activities, like copying myself." As he found, the [Gemini AI]()-enabled feature functions much better for taking uncanny doppelgänger photos than trying to take straightforward group shots — and a perusal through X-formerly-Twitter babble about "Add Me" shows that he's not alone. https://www.twitter.com/SeanFennerJr/status/1827019024888426912 With so much ado about Pixel's other powerful AI features, from [altering photos in-app]() to what [*Wired* calls]() its "next-level chatbot," it's refreshing to see some actual results that temper the hype surrounding the new smartphone — though to [Android stans]() and [AI admirers](), mixed reviews are probably beside the point. **More on dumb AI:** [*Google's AI Traffic Light Project May Have Been a Mistake*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()