Microsoft Paint and Photos Embed Server-Issued GUIDs as Invisible Watermarks in Locally-Generated Images
Xusheng Li
Microsoft Paint and Photos Embed Server-Issued GUIDs as Invisible Watermarks in Locally-Generated Images
Reverse engineering reveals how Paint and Photos embed a server-issued GUID into the pixels of locally generated AI images.
Don’t underestimate Microsoft’s ability to write bloated software. Any sloppy developer really.
Paint has AI now? Why…
Notepad had a “Copilot” button at one point. No clue if it’s still there though since I’m fully on Linux now.
The button isnt there anymore but the functionality is more hidden without the name Copilot under “advanced settings” or sth. I read that somewhere.
Because AI is your shiny new hammer and everything is a nail now, so you really, really need to use it…
On a more serious note: Cramming AI into everything (and even inventing new stuff that absolutely needs AI for some reason) and then making people heavily pay for AI once they can’t escape that bullshit anymore is basically the only way to ever get the insane investments pumped into the AI bubble back. And even that is highly questionable.
Putting AI into software that doesn’t need it isn’t even registering on the insanity scale anymore given that there is now ‘AI included’ advertising on fucking tooth brushes.
Because if the AI is in paint it gains the potential to monitor everything you do in paint. Deliberately or acidentally click the AI button? It now gets to steal your work.
I haven’t used either of these since forever.
And here MS is working diublr-time to push people to Linux
There is no widespread migration of desktop users from Windows to Linux and I doubt there ever will be. Can we finally bury this delusional idea? It’s far more likely that the desktop PC dies almost completely as a device category used by anyone but professionals and a tiny minority of enthusiasts than for this to happen.
I agree with you that the linux crowd is delusional about this matter, but fwiw I have seen an increase in non-tech people switching to Zorin or Mint in my circles in the past 2 years. I doubt there’s gonna be a widespread migration in the near future, but with Linux finally getting more gui-friendly and less terminal-dependant, I think there’s gonna be a fair increase eventually.
In the last 5 years (in the west) it has gone from 1% to 5-6%. So instead of 1 out of 100 people you meet having a Linux aystem, 1 out of 20 might. That’s a significant change. Before trump in the white house it may not have eclipsed Windows use (even though their market share has been dropping for a decade), but with Trump threatening the world countries have seriously reconsidered dropping Microsoft Products for sovereign security. Without a Microsoft product there is no reason to run a bloated MS OS anymore.
Seems just as likely, considering how ephemeral supporting facts become when extrapolated further and further into the future. 🤓