Skógafoss is a must-see, everyone said, and in a country with as much natural beauty as Iceland, that means it’s gonna be some majestic shit. The waterfall didn’t disappoint, but even on a chilly weekday in March, the place was mobbed. My photos — and c’mon, you have to take photos — were littered with tourists in puffy coats, all taking their own pictures of the falls. Not exactly the stuff you print and hang on the wall.
A couple of months later, I watched a picture of the same waterfall appear onscreen at Google’s annual developer conference as the company demonstrated its new AI-powered Magic Editor. In this version, a puffy-coated tourist stood in front of the falls on a gray day. CEO Sundar Pichai talks through the edits happening…