ⓘ Sony – edited
If you think you’re having had a bad day, you might feel a little bit better after finding out what Sony is currently going through.
The smartphone tech community on X is roasting the Japanese company over its new AI Camera Assistant feature launched with the new Xperia 1 VIII flagship. You can check out the photo samples below, but in case it wasn’t clear, Sony is comparing photos taken with and without its new AI Camera Assistant’s image processing.
Why the awkward social media backlash? Well, let’s just say that most smartphone camera enthusiasts believe the “before” photos look like what the “after” photos should’ve looked like. According to most users, the consensus is that the AI-enhanced samples show visible overexposure, low vibrance, and low dynamic range, while the original images look more balanced.
The quote over Sony’s viral X post reads:
“The new AI Camera Assistant with Xperia Intelligence brings stories to life. Using subject, scene and weather, it suggests expressive options with adjustments of colour, exposure, bokeh, and lens for breathtaking photos.”
Xperia 1 VIII AI Camera Assistant backlash: Nothing CEO Carl Pei asks Sony if this is “engagement farming”; some believe it’s a technical error
The internet has a few theories as to “what went wrong”. One of them is that Sony simply mislabeled the samples, switching the places of the “before” and “after” photos. However, that’d make sense only if the same samples (labeled identically) weren’t present on Sony’s official website.
Nothing CEO Carl Pei reposted the photos, asking if this is “engagement farming,” while many phone enthusiasts began sharing their own “before and after” samples (purposefully edited to look overexposed), “thanking” Sony’s new AI Camera Assistant for “making photos pop.”
Either way, many of those commenting believe this is free marketing for the new Xperia 1 VIII, thanks to the level of attention the X post is getting.
Sony says the AI Camera Assistant is meant to “inspire your inner photographer”; no official response to the hundreds of comments
At the time of writing this, Sony hasn’t responded to any comments, and the post hasn’t been taken down. It’s worth noting that the AI Camera Assistant is an optional feature within the Xperia 1 VIII’s camera interface and can be turned off.
In fact, a little bit of digging shows that, according to Sony, the AI Camera Assistant’s idea is to help “your creativity surge” with “effective settings” that “inspire your inner photographer.” This strongly suggests Sony wants to give users stylistic filter-like options similar to Apple’s Photographic Styles, so perhaps we’re talking about a major misunderstanding.
It remains to be seen if Sony will try to clear things up with a follow-up social media post or a camera update.
Martin is a professional smartphone nerd since he got his first “real” smartphone, the Galaxy Young. Although Martin is getting older, his enthusiasm and analytical eye for a phone spec sheet is holding up nicely.
AI has already stolen several of Martin’s jobs. But don’t worry! He took revenge by switching back to a dumb toothbrush – the kind you have to swing back and forth until your teeth are clean.
Martin started writing about tech in 2021, hitting “publish” on nearly 800 feature articles in four years. Possibly a Guinness world record. Or at least a Heineken.
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