Microsoft Paint gets AI generative fill and erase features similar to Photoshop

Microsoft is bringing up-to-date AI-powered Paint and Photos features to Copilot Plus computers that will make artistic creation less dependent on more powerful image editing software. Generative Fill and Generative Erase – which seem to be largely inspired by similar AI tools in Adobe Photoshop – are coming to Paint, allowing users to precisely add and remove objects in images.

Both tools operate an adjustable size brush to “paint” specific areas of the image for editing. Generative Erase will remove unwanted figures, objects like background clutter, and other distractions, just like the Magic Eraser feature on Google Pixel phones. Generative fill allows Paint users to add up-to-date AI-generated assets to an image using text description and precisely select where they should be placed – much like the Photoshop tool of the same name.

They are based on A co-authoring tool for Paint announced earlier this year for Copilot Plus computers, which can generate images using a combination of text prompts and reference sketches. The company says the distribution-based model supporting these features has been updated to improve output quality and speed, and now includes “built-in moderation” to support prevent abuse.

Microsoft’s Photos app is also getting a generative eraser tool and a up-to-date Super-Resolution feature that uses device artificial intelligence to fix blurry or pixelated images. Users can enlarge images up to eight times their original resolution and adjust the scaling level using a slider to match the capabilities of tools such as Scaling an image in Canva and exceeding 4x Super Resolution Improvement in Adobe Lightroom. According to Microsoft, it’s available for free and is brisk enough to upscale images “up to 4K in seconds.”