Samsung Users Discover Their Phones Can Recreate Their Faces—Even When They're Covered

AI-powered photo editing has been a game-changer for smartphones. Gone are the days of simple filters and retouches—now, people can erase unwanted strangers from the background, reposition subjects in their photos, and even add entirely new elements using generative AI. But Samsung users just discovered a feature that's equal parts fascinating and eerie—and no one really knows how it works.

After the latest update to Samsung's flagship phones, users realized they could cover most of their face with their hand, erase the hand using Samsung's AI-powered editing tool, and then ask the phone to generate the missing part of the image. The result? A shockingly accurate recreation of their face.

Via Parker Burton

Naturally, this raised concerns. Many assumed that Samsung must be storing facial data on its servers and using that to reconstruct missing faces. But after testing the same trick on brand new devices with no user data or cloud connections, the AI still managed to generate highly realistic and recognizable faces.

However, there's a catch—this trick only works when part of the user's face is still visible. If the entire face is covered, the AI generates a completely random face that looks nothing like the user. This suggests that rather than pulling stored facial data, the AI is making an educated guess based on the limited features it can see.

On the whole, Samsung's generative AI tools are impressively advanced, Whether this level of intelligent reconstruction is cool or creepy is up to you, but one thing's for sure—AI-powered photography is evolving fast.

For an example of this AI facial reconstruction Click here.