Microsoft Paint is getting Photoshop-like generative AI fill and erase features

Microsoft is bringing some new AI-powered Paint and Photos features to Copilot Plus PCs that could make creatives less reliant on more powerful image editing software. Generative Fill and Generative Erase — which appear to be heavily inspired by similar AI tools in Adobe Photoshop — are being introduced to Paint, allowing users to precisely add or remove objects in their images.

Both tools utilize a size-adjustable brush to “paint” over specific areas of an image to edit. Generative Erase will remove unwanted figures, objects like background clutter, and other distractions, similar to the Magic Eraser feature on Google’s Pixel phones. Generative Fill allows Paint users to add new AI-generated assets to an image using a text description and select precisely where they should be placed — much like the Photoshop tool that shares the same name.

These build on the Cocreator tool for Paint announced for Copilot Plus PCs earlier this year that can generate images using a combination of text prompts and reference sketches. The company says the diffusion-based model powering these features has been updated to improve output quality and speed and now includes “built-in moderation” to help prevent it from being abused.

Microsoft’s Photos app is also getting the Generative Erase tool, alongside a new Super-Resolution feature that uses on-device AI to upscale blurry or pixelated images. Users can upscale images by up to eight times their original resolution and adjust the level of upscaling with a slider, matching the capabilities of tools like Canva’s image upscaler and exceeding Adobe Lightroom’s 4x Super Resolution enhancement. It’s available for free and is speedy enough to upscale images “up to 4K within seconds,” according to Microsoft.