In a technical article published earlier today, Facebook has reveled some of the Machine Learning (AKA ‘AI’) technology that decides what photos show up on Instagram’s “Explore” tab—the main way IG users discover new accounts and content.

While the release of this person does not exist by three researchers created a massive wave of buzz, it never went beyond curiosity. When Ivan Braun and his team launched Generated Photos, the interest changed to concern and apprehension. Generating human portraits via AI was no longer a research paper but a real, viable business. One that can and probably will profoundly disrupt a multi-billion industry led by the likes of Adobe, Shutterstock and Getty Images.

On October 1st, inventor of the smartphone photo filter Hipstamatic made its grand return to the spotlight by releasing Hipstamatic X: a free iOS camera app that hopes to “bring all the joy, quirk, and randomness of film photography to your pocket.”

It’s one more crack in the fabric of reality as we know it: Researchers at the University of Washington and Facebook have described their work on software that can take any image containing a human body—whether in a painting or a photograph—and automatically create an animated character that walks through the still image.

Appropriately, they call it Photo Wake-Up.

For some photographers, the thought of continuing to use Adobe’s subscription-based products is unpalatable, and fortunately, there are a number of full-featured alternatives that come without the price nor baggage.

JPEG images are everywhere in our digital lives, but behind the veil of familiarity lie algorithms that remove details that are imperceptible to the human eye. This produces the highest visual quality with the smallest file size—but what does that look like? Let’s see what our eyes can’t see!

Google has officially launched its incredible “Night Sight” feature on the Pixel 3 camera app. Computational photography pioneer and Google Distinguished Engineer Marc Levoy co-wrote a blog describing all the different considerations that went into developing the jaw dropping technology that allows the Pixel to see in the dark. It’s worth a read.

The New York Times has teamed up with Google Cloud for digitizing five to seven million old photos in its archive. Google’s AI will also be tasked with unearthing “untold stories” in the massive trove of historical images.

So the BBC started looking into the video, which allegedly took place in Cameroon. In July, when the video first went viral, the government there dismissed the allegations as “fake news” on the basis that the soldiers depicted were not wearing the right gear or carrying the right weapons.

Consumer video sure ain’t what it used to be. The category now includes numerous variations, ranging from full-length to short-form narratives, plus what could be called “phodeos”: hybrids of photos and videos such as Boomerang clips, Instagram Stories, and even the (now venerable) GIF animations. Due in large part to these new options that free consumers from the “one (huge) size fits all” straightjacket of the past, motion imaging is more popular now than ever.