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The Pixel 9 is great — and a problem

An image of AI sparkles over a Vergecast illustration.
Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge

Google got a lot of things right with the Pixel 9 lineup. The hardware is lovely, the chip is fast, even the huge camera bump kind of has a way about it, you know? It’s a worthy Android flagship in every way. It also — and not to be dramatic here — feels a bit like a harbinger of doom.

The Pixel 9’s AI photography features, particularly the “Reimagine” tool that allows you to change your photos with just a prompt, appears to be a big and worrisome step toward a world in which we won’t be able to trust photos of practically any sort. These aren’t the AI-generated photos with too many fingers and plenty of other tells; these just look like photos. They are photos! But they’re not real. And we’re not ready for what that means.

On this…

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