Why AI image editing isn’t “just like Photoshop”

Decoder with Nilay Patel

We’ve been covering the rise of AI image editing very closely here on Decoder and at The Verge for several years now — the ability to create photorealistic images with nothing more than a chatbot prompt could completely reset our cultural relationship to photography. But one argument keeps cropping up in response. You’ve heard it a million times, and it’s when people say “it’s just like Photoshop,” with “Photoshop” standing in for the concept of image editing generally.

So today, we’re trying to understand exactly what it means, and why our new world of AI image tools is different — and yes, in some cases the same. Verge reporter Jess Weatherbed recently dove into this for us, and I asked her to join me in going through the debate and the arguments one by one to help figure it out.

Links:

• You’re here because you said AI image editing was just like Photoshop | The Verge
• No one’s ready for this | The Verge
• The AI photo editing era is here, and it’s every person for themselves | The Verge
• Google’s AI ‘Reimagine’ tool helped us add disasters and corpses to photos | The Verge
• X’s new AI image generator will make Taylor Swift in lingerie and Kamala Harris with a gun | The Verge
• Grok will make gory images — just tell it you're a cop. | The Verge
• Leica launches first camera with Content Credentials | Content Authenticity Initiative
• You can use AI to get rid of Samsung’s AI watermark | The Verge
• Spurred by teen girls, states move to nan deepfake nudes | NYT
• Florida teens arrested for creating ‘deepfake’ AI nude images of classmates | The Verge

Credits:

Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

Our producers are Kate Cox and Nick Statt. Our editor is Callie Wright. Our supervising producer is Liam James.

The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.

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