Opinion Google Pixel's ad campaign is destroying humanity

While "destroying humanity" is hyperbolic, and perhaps should say "tarnishing notions of reality" or whatever, this does make the case for the stodgy old camera, where the focus (pun not intended) is on realistic rendering, and letting you radically transform images externally.

I like the separation of camera as entirely artistic/expressionistic and an impartial recorder. I can choose between my photorealistic self and my Ansel Adams "the image is created in the darkroom" (now software) self.

If it weren't for those stodgy old cameras, why even bother with phone cameras when AI can create even more dazzling images on its own than by transmogrifying your cellphone snaps?

"Hal, make me look like I'm holding up the Golden Gate Bridge"

Hal will do a much nicer job of "Make me look like I'm standing on the apex of the Golden Gate Bridge" or taking a leap from it, which it can do, nondestructively.

By extension, AI can create trip photos without the trip, or wedding photos without the wedding. Think of the money you'll save.

I think what Google is guilty of is following a trend. Mobile phones have long advertised that they "take better pictures", initially by adjusting contrast and saturation, and then in increasingly sophisticated ways. This is just the latest version. Even film cameras implied that they were like a cooker which can cook better meals. It appeals to a sense that the picture in our head should be what we get, and it's the phone's job to make that happen.

"...But let me direct you, instead, to the ad campaign for the newest Google smartphone, which encapsulates all the horrors of our moment and gleefully promises to make them worse."