Samsung\u2019s recently caught some flak after widespread reports that its camera software fakes zoom pictures of the moon<\/a>, but things may be about to get way more unsettling. A Verge<\/em> reader wrote in on Wednesday to tell us that the company\u2019s software is adding teeth<\/em> to pictures of their seven-month old daughter.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n This reader says they recently got an S23 Ultra, and decided to try out the Remaster feature in Samsung\u2019s photo-viewing app, Gallery. (It\u2019s the default photo app for the phone, and the feature is available inside the camera if you visit your photo roll.) <\/p>\n<\/div>\n They expected something like what Google Photos does, suggesting specific adjustments and filters, unbluring pictures<\/a>, and the like. Instead, they got the results you can see below, with the original image on the left and the \u201cRemastered\u201d one on the right.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n So… this is some nightmare fuel. Sure, it erases some unsightly snot (can\u2019t have the world thinking that this baby isn\u2019t ready for its close-up 100 percent of the time), but it also appears to look at the baby\u2019s tongue and immediately jump to \u201cI know what that should look like: a nice row of fully-grown teeth!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The reader also sent us a video of the Remaster feature turning their daughter\u2019s tongue into teeth in another<\/em> picture, which makes it seem like it\u2019s not just a one-off glitch.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n I wasn\u2019t able to reproduce these teething issues myself, using the same version of the Gallery app on a regular S22. I tried remastering half a dozen photos of babies (and even a screenshot from the updated, less-toothy Sonic<\/em> trailer<\/a> ) and never saw anything like what this user got. I also wasn\u2019t able to find any other people reporting this type of issue, so it\u2019s impossible to say for sure what\u2019s going on.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n We reached out to Samsung for comment but didn\u2019t immediately receive a response.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Samsung\u2019s website says<\/a> the Remastering feature \u201cremoves shadows and reflections automatically to make your pictures look great.\u201d Unlike Samsung\u2019s explanation<\/a> of the Scene Optimizer feature that added details to the moon, Samsung\u2019s description of the Remaster feature doesn\u2019t even including any handwaving about \u201cAI\u201d or \u201cdeep-learning.\u201d It doesn\u2019t even really sound like the beautification filters that we\u2019ve seen on phones for years<\/a>, with teeth-whitening filters that could maybe, possibly, misfire in such an upsetting way. Based on what Samsung wrote, I\u2019d basically expect it to just tweak my exposure settings, similar to Google Photos\u2019 \u201cEnhance\u201d feature. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n So where are the teeth coming from?<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The reader described the resulting picture as \u201cfar more disturbing than a faked moonshot if you ask me,\u201d and I somewhat agree \u2014 the altered moon pictures just look like slightly better pictures of the moon, whereas this is the embodiment of the unsettling teeth tweet<\/a>. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n However, I will say that there is a difference in context here. The moon fakery happens automatically in the camera app if you have a certain feature on. Here, you still have to explicitly ask for a remaster (which you have the option of discarding, leaving the original intact). The moon story sparked discussions about what exactly it means to take a photograph<\/a>, whereas this is mostly just a story about an editing feature taking a much-too-agressive bite. If Samsung was using AI to yassify babies<\/a> or give them teeth straight out of the camera we\u2019d be having a very different conversation here, but for now, that\u2019s not what\u2019s happening. But I still hate looking at it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n