Google Lens actually makes augmented reality useful

Google's image-recognition AI just got way smarter.

The company announced a new computer-vision platform, Google Lens, which could give our smartphone cameras even more power.

CEO Sundar Pichai showed off Google Lens with an innocuous image of a little girl playing baseball, taken from behind a chainlink backstop. It was a cute pic — but the criss-crossing metal of the fence in the foreground was a bit of a bummer. 

That is, until Pichai activated the Lens image and erased the fence from the foreground, with no degradation of the image of the little girl at the plate. Read more...