- Paint is getting two new features in testing
- The first allows AI to create an animation from a photo or diagram
- The second allows complex editing to be performed on the image with a simple one-line AI prompt
Microsoft is enhancing the Paint app in Windows 11 with two new AI capabilities, one that allows for easy compilation of short animations, and the other that is very large yellow shadows (by which I mean: think Google’s Nano Banana).
Latest Windows Reports Both features are part of Windows AI Labs, the foundation for testing AI-based functionality.
The new “Animate” option can be tapped to turn any photo (or diagram) into a full animation, with the AI doing the hard work.
Based on recent Windows testing — the tech site shows two examples — there’s still a fair way to go here, though. The feature doesn’t ask any prompts, so there’s no control over the final outcome, and the AI just decides which direction to take.
And in the case of the sample pic of Pikachu flying through the night sky, the final animation based on this goes off the rails. It’s okay at first, but then the weirdness creeps in eventually.
The second feature coming to Paint is ‘Generative Edit’, which, Gemini Nano Banana style, lets you take an image and apply a complex edit to it via a simple AI-powered query. Windows Update shows one example of taking a banana and turning the background into a “fruit forest” – this actually works very well.
Analysis: Generation Game
Both of these capabilities take some time to be achieved in the examples provided by Windows Late, and as mentioned, the results can be skewed, but this is still early testing. We’ve been told that Microsoft uses its own internal model to create the animation, so if you think it’s based on third-party technology, it clearly isn’t.
We can’t even be sure that these AI features will ever leave the test, but that’s probably a fair bet. These are obvious functions to look for inclusion in Paint, an application that is gradually becoming more infused with artificial intelligence, and more complex in general.
If you’re wondering how to join Windows AI Labs to access this type of experimental functionality, you’ll need to enroll in the program. However, for now, invitations are only being rolled out to select Windows 11 testers, so you’ll have to be a Windows Insider — then you’ll see an invitation pop up at some point in Paint (as more recent Windows has done). So, all you can do now is sit back and wait (and join the Windows Insider program if you’re not already a member).
There are already quite a few AI features in Paint, the most important of which is Cocreator, along with many other capabilities. Microsoft isn’t afraid to make its default Windows 11 apps more complex these days, as mentioned, and Paint strays far from its original concept as a basic photo editor. The same applies to Notepad, which upsets some people.