Earlier this year Samsung revealed its new Sketch to Image tool, which uses AI to transform rough doodles into more polished images. I recently got the opportunity to try this feature on the new Samsung Galaxy Tab S10+ and S10 Ultra.
So, of course, I drew boobs.
Artificial intelligence is the undisputed darling of the tech industry right now, with practically everyone scrambling to incorporate it wherever they can. Tech giant Samsung is no exception, having enhanced their devices with a constellation of AI-powered features in Galaxy AI.
Among these features is Sketch to Image, a generative AI tool that aims to turn even the worst Pictionary player's drawings into attractive, legible images. Speaking to Mashable at a Sydney press event, Samsung's representatives demonstrated that Sketch to Image can be used for tasks such as creating profile pictures, sprucing up infographics, and adding hats to photos of dogs.
They also confirmed that Sketch to Image has inbuilt safeguards to prevent the exact type of misuse I was blatantly conspiring to their face.
This was not unexpected. It would have been more surprising had Samsung's development team not accounted for human depravity. Yet all prisons are inescapable until someone escapes, and I was not about to be deterred from my efforts by the mere presence of a lock.
The most obvious test of Samsung's Sketch to Image tool would have been that schooldesk stalwart of meat and two veg. Penile pictorials are the quintessential inappropriate doodle, adorning public bathrooms and alleyways alike.
However, surrounded by fellow tech reporters and Samsung representatives, I admit I felt too embarrassed to attempt even a crude doodle of a doodle. While I dabbled in drawing during my high school years, I was never gripped by the adolescent inclination toward genitalia. Having lived an offensively mild, rule-abiding life up until now, I was not prepared for my first attempt at such illicit artworks to have an audience.
As such, I opted for an arguably less confronting subject that has been extensively studied throughout the history of fine art, and which I speculated might be less aggressively censored. To wit, the nude female form.
Naturally, the focal point of my artwork had to be a respectable pair of big naturals. The image needed to be recognisably risque for testing purposes, after all. Even so, I was still too shy to include any obvious indicators of nudity beyond a visible belly button, furtively sketching an exaggerated but bashfully nondescript feminine figure.
Yet despite my demure inclinations, Samsung's Galaxy AI had no trouble picking up what I was putting down — and promptly putting it back down again.
My request to generate an image from my rude scribble did trigger a loading screen, indicating that Sketch to Image was on the job. However, Samsung soon bumped me back to my questionable artwork with a notification that it "Can't generate with this content," like an art teacher who isn't mad, just disappointed.
Galaxy AI was not having a bar of my M-rated shenanigans, and I honestly hadn't expected it to. In some ways it was a relief. I do not care to contemplate the sheer panic that would have overtaken me had I been presented with an anatomically correct image akin to Kate Winslet's portrait in Titanic.
Even so, I am not one to give up at the first obstacle. I thus resolved to determine how much I'd need to alter my Samsung-disapproved art in order for Sketch to Image to accept it, like the Mythbusters build team continuing to pile explosives onto an experiment.
Adding a tight tank top and shorts to my drawing wasn't enough to placate Galaxy AI, with Sketch to Image refusing to budge even when faced with spaghetti straps. To be fair, the few thin lines potentially signifying a garment only marginally differentiated the drawing from my first improper attempt.
However, Samsung's AI did finally deem the same doodle safe to work with. All I had to do was erase the prominent underboob line outlining my model's mammaries.
Sketch to Image's AI interpretation of my artwork did introduce some shading indicative of a notable chest, which I had not included in my submitted image. However my bold, unapologetic bust lines were apparently too much for its modest sensibilities.
Interestingly, while I did not give my naked lady facial features at any point, Galaxy AI's Sketch to Image also inserted a gently smiling Bold Glamour face into one of the four sketch options if offered to me, even adding an ear. It appears that, when given no direction, this is what Samsung's AI thinks a woman's face looks like.
I didn't get to play with Samsung's Sketch to Image for too long, so was unable to test other unsafe for work imagery or incrementally loosening clothes. Sketch to Image wouldn't allow me to partially erase lines, taking an all or nothing approach to each collection of strokes.
As such, I would have had to completely redraw entire sections to conduct such experiments, and everyone had more important things to do than watch me draw hundreds of people in varying states of dress. Even had I continued my foray into artistic debauchery, I remain unconvinced that further experimentation would have eventually yielded the obscene scenes I sought.
Really, it's for the best. Generative AI has limitless potential for misuse and abuse without safeguards in place, as we've already seen from the rise of explicit deepfakes. Guardrails such as Galaxy AI's rejection of racy imagery are necessary to curb humanity's darkest impulses as we hurtle onward, fascinated by possibility to the neglect of wisdom. They also prevent budding young artists from inadvertently creating images featuring subject matter unsuitable for their age.
Besides, there's no shortage of nudity on the internet for mature audiences with eyes to see. Even without the help of Samsung's AI, one can find a veritable smorgasbord of illustrated genitalia online, whether it be sketched, painted, or lovingly rendered as a 3D model.
If such imagery is what your heart truly desires, this longing can be easily sated with a standard internet search. The results may not be as personalised as a picture from Samsung's Sketch to Image tool, but with the amount of variety out there, chances are you'll find images with much more artistic flair than if the AI acquiesced to sprucing up your surreptitious juvenile sketches.
