I didn't care about Galaxy AI until it gave my dog a Pokmon bong

Samsung's Galaxy AI is mostly stuff we're used to by now, like AI-assisted live translation and writing help. One of Galaxy AI's more novel features, "sketch to image," lets you insert realistic AI-generated objects into existing photos by sketching over top of them. It's a fun enough gimmick, but it doesn't take many repetitions for putting AI-generated hats on people to lose its novelty.

But I was reminded that sketch to image exists today, so I fired up Samsung Gallery on the Galaxy Z Flip 6 I've been using and picked an especially funny photo of my dog, fresh from the vet's and loopy on anesthetic, to play around with. I wasn't expecting it, but sketch to image absolutely delivered, and the experience made me want to tell people about it — but I'm not sure if it's for the reasons Samsung would hope.

My source image (he's back to his senses now).

The photo I used was of my dog, Frankie, as I picked him up after a minor surgery yesterday, meds in full swing. My first thought was, naturally, to put sunglasses on him, which Galaxy AI handled like a champ (I like the Kurt Cobain look it settled on). Then I added a crown, then a watch, and a few more odds and ends, all of which worked about as well as I'd expect. (Interestingly, the Wall-E-style robot at the top of the edited version below started as a pretty clear sketch of Android's bot mascot .)

Sketch to image puts certain limits on what you can add to photos; when you try to draw on a person's face, for example, you'll get an error message. Trying to come up with something Galaxy AI wouldn't let me add to the photo of Frankie, I drew a circle with two cylinders extending away from it — a roughly sketched bong. To my surprise, Galaxy AI complied, generating several options. In the next edit, Galaxy AI let me add a Poké Ball over the bong's round base.

We are living in the future.

I think the result here is fantastic; this is exactly the kind of low-stakes, goofy junk I want from AI image generation tools. But I also wonder whether this is the kind of result Samsung anticipated when it built sketch to image into Samsung Gallery on its new foldables.

Apple has a history of incorporating subtle and not-so-subtle jokes about weed into its presentations (at WWDC last month, Craig Federighi said macOS Sequoia's name was chosen by Apple's marketing team who "felt a deep kinship with anything that could get that high"), but the gags don't extend to the company's software. And Galaxy AI adding a Poké Ball, a recognizable symbol of a huge media franchise owned in part by notoriously litigious Nintendo, is almost more surprising.

'Can't generate due to location of drawing.'

Is the Pok Bong intended, or unanticipated?

AI continues to be complicated

Samsung letting users add Nintendo-themed drug paraphernalia to our photos using AI doesn't feel like an issue for consumers in itself. But it does make me think about how much control Samsung means to exert in how we use Galaxy AI; there are some guardrails in place already, but not as many as I'd expect. I also wonder whether designs or artworks created by smaller artists or organizations can be reproduced by Galaxy AI the way a Poké Ball can.

As these phones make their way into the hands of more people, we're sure to see more examples of sketch to image acting up — hopefully in similarly harmless ways. Galaxy AI and sketch to image are works in progress, though, and Samsung wouldn't be the first to add post-launch limits to what its image generator can do; Google's Gemini still can't generate images of people since Google yanked the ability earlier this year . If you ordered a Z Fold 6 or Z Flip 6, be sure to get all your silliest image edits in before Samsung inevitably tames Galaxy AI in future updates.

• 

  Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6

  The Galaxy Z Flip 6 is Samsung's most evolved take yet on the flip-style foldable form factor. Its 3.4-inch AMOLED cover screen supports Galaxy AI features without opening the device, along with upgraded widgets and suggested replies, butits gorgeous 6.7-inch FHD+ AMOLED folding display will still have you flipping the phone open quite a bit.

• 

  Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6

  Samsung's latest foldable takes some cues from the Galaxy S24 Ultra, with a boxier design and an all-matte finish. It features a slightly wider cover display for a more comfortable typing experience, as well as new Galaxy AI features and an upgraded ultra-wide camera.