Google Photos will be adding several new features later this year, some of which may be a little creepier than others

Coming this summer is Cinematic Moments, a Google Photos tool that delivers results similar to Apple's Live Photos The difference is that Cinematic Moments creates in-motion media, using artificial intelligence (AI) to fill in the gaps between a few photos, rather than recording a short video

Cinematic Moments can create complete, animated action shots with just a few still images It uses a neural network to synthesize the moment and materialize the frame from nothing

This AI implementation is reminiscent of the capabilities used by some TV manufacturers for advanced motion smoothing Google's approach, however, is not applied to content produced for the public, but for personal collections of memories

So while it's not creepy to have AI create frames of your favorite movie action scenes, it's a little spine-tingling to know that technology can edit your own intimate moments into full animation

While a new native feature of Google Photos, it is not new in nature; DeepFake programs like Wombo and Deep Nostalgia already create similar sentimental animations

According to Google, Cinematic Moments is best suited for moments where a consistent image is not available, such as having multiple children smile and look at the camera at the same time Personally, I think these photo blunders are part of the memories, but if you need a digital holiday card, Cinematic Moments could come in handy

In addition to Cinematic Moments, Google announced new editing and management features for its photo program during Google I/O 2021

Little Patterns is a tool that groups together photos with similar markers It automatically surfaces a collection of images intended to tell a story based on one unifying color, object, or location

For example, the subject of a little pattern might be a particular backpack you take on a trip; Google Photos will recognize the backpacks in your photos over a period of time and group them together to highlight that pattern The result should be an intelligent album that you never would have thought of on your own

And if there are images in these albums that you don't want to see, you can hide them with Google Photos' new controls In fact, you can hide images from a specific time period or hide images that include a specific person That way, if these memories are buried in an album, they will not appear naturally