Adobe Lightroom’s new Generative Remove AI tool makes Content-aware Fill feel basic – and gives you one less reason to use Photoshop

One of Adobe Lightroom's most used editing tools, Content-aware Fill, just got a serious upgrade in the AI-powered shape of Generative Remove. The Adobe Firefly tool is branded “Lightroom's most powerful remove tool yet” and after a quick play ahead of its announcement, I'd have to agree. 

Compared to Content-aware Fill, which will remain in Adobe's popular photo organizer and editor, Generative Remove is much more intelligent, plus it's non-destructive. 

As you can see from the gif below, Generative Remove is used to remove unwanted objects in your image, plus it works a treat for retouching. You simply brush over the area you'd like to edit – whether that's removing a photo bomber or something as simple as creases in clothing – and then the new tool creates a selection of smart edits with the object removed (or retouch applied) for you to pick your favorite from.

If I was to use Lightroom's existing Content-aware Fill for the same image in the gif below and in the same way, or even for a much smaller selection, it would sample parts of the model's orange jacket and hair and place them in the selection. I'd then need to repeatedly apply the tool to remove these new unwanted details, and the new area increasingly becomes an artifact-ridden mess.

Adobe Lightroom Generative Remove tool

(Image credit: Adobe)

Put simply, Lightroom's existing remove tool works okay for small selections but it regularly includes samples of parts of the image you don't want. Generative Remove is significantly faster and more effective for objects of all sizes than Content-aware Fill, plus it's non-destructive, creating a new layer that you can turn on and off.

From professionals wanting to speed up their workflow to simply removing distant photo bombers with better results, Generative Remove is next-level Lightroom editing and it gives you one less reason to use Adobe Photoshop. It is set to be a popular tool for photographers of all skills levels needing to make quick remove and retouching edits.

Generative Remove is available now as an early access feature across all Lightroom platforms: mobile, desktop, iPad, web and Classic.

Adobe Lightroom Generative Remove tool

(Image credit: Adobe)

Adobe also announced that its Lens Blur tool is being rolled out in full to Lightroom, with new automatic presets. As you can see in the gif above, presets include subtle, bubble and geometric effects to bokeh. For example, speckled and artificial light can be given a circular shape with the Lens Blur bubble effect.

Lens Blur is another AI-tool and doesn't just apply a uniform strength blur to the background, but uses 3D mapping in order to apply a different strength of blur based on how far away objects are in the background, for more believable results.

It's another non-destructive edit, too, meaning that you can add to or remove from the selection if you're not happy with the strength of blur applied or if background objects get missed out first time around – for instance, it might mistake a lamp in the image above as a subject and not apply blur to it.

Having both Generative Remove and Lens Blur AI-tools to hand makes Lightroom more powerful than ever. Lens Blur is now generally available across the Lightroom ecosystem. Furthermore, there are other new tools added to Lightroom and you can find out more on the Adobe website.

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ChatGPT Plus just got a major update that might make it feel more human – here’s how the new memory feature works

Artificial intelligence might seem a little less artificial today now that Memory is live for all ChatGPT Plus users.

After a few months of testing in both the free and pay versions of the generative AI chatbot, OpenAI chose to enable the feature, for paying customers only, in all regions except Korea and Europe.

ChatGPT's memory is exactly what it sounds like. During prompt-driven “conversations” with the AI, ChatGPT Plus can now remember key facts about the conversations, including details about you, and then apply that information to future interactions. Put another way, ChatGPT Plus just graduated from a somewhat disinterested acquaintance to a friend who cares enough to remember that your birthday is next week or that you recently bought a dog.

You can tell the system to implicitly remember something or just state facts about yourself that it will remember.

ChatGPT Plus Memory

Cross-chat memory introduction (Image credit: Future)

I know, it's the kind of thing that could make AIs like ChatGPT far more useful or completely terrifying. Up until now, we've mostly dealt with generative AIs that had intense short-term memory loss. Systems like ChatGPT, Google's Gemini, and Microsoft CopIlot could carry on lengthy, discrete conversations where they'd do a decent job of maintaining context (the longer the conversation, the wonkier this could get). If, however, you ended one conversation and started another, it was like meeting a completely different person who knew nothing about you or the conversation you had three minutes ago.

Unlike human memory, which can remember some things forever but easily forget others, ChatGPT Plus Memory is in your control.

Controlling ChatGPT Plus Memory

As I mentioned earlier, you can help ChatGPT Plus build its Memory by telling it things about yourself that you want it to remember. By doing so, you'll notice that when you ask, say, your age or where you live, it will be able to tell you. ChatGPT will also take those details and combine them with future queries, which could shorten your conversation and make the results more accurate and useful.

Memory is enabled by default. You can find it under Settings/Personalization. There's a toggle switch where you can turn it off.

ChatGPT Plus Memory

ChatGPT Plus Memory control. (Image credit: Future)

To see all of ChatGPT Plus' memories, you select the Manage button, which sits right below the Memory description and toggle. Initially, even though I told ChatGPT Plus to remember things about me, my memory box remained empty. If I had found any in there, I could clear all of them or select only the ones I wanted to remove.

However, when I told ChatGPT “I really love houseplants,” I saw a little notation appear right above its response that said: “Memory updated.” When I selected that, the memory, “Loves houseplants”, appeared below it, and right below that, a link to Manage memories.

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ChatGPT Plus Memory

(Image credit: Future)
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ChatGPT Plus Memory

(Image credit: Future)
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ChatGPT Plus Memory

(Image credit: Future)
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ChatGPT Plus Memory

I made ChatGPT Plus remember my love of houseplants (Image credit: Future)

Later, when I asked ChatGPT Plus how I might liven up my home, it answered, in part (I bolded the relevant bit), “Adding some houseplants is a great way to liven up your home! They not only beautify the space but also improve air quality and can enhance your mood. Since you love houseplants, you might consider diversifying the types you have….”

As noted, Memory is not free. A ChatGPT Plus subscription, which gives you, among other things, access to the GPT-4 model, costs $ 20 /£20 a month.  I asked OpenAI if any version of Memory is coming to non-paying ChatGPT users and will update this post with their response.

Sure, ChatGPT Plus Memory nudges the generative AI in the direction of humanity, but there is, as far as I know, no way to go into anyone's mind and delete some or all memories.

ChatGPT Plus Memory

Temporary Chat will turn off memories for that that. (Image credit: Future)

While you can turn off Memories, you might like the middle option, which uses the new “Temporary Chat” to introduce short-term amnesia to the system.

To use it, choose the ChatGPT model you want from the drop-down menu and then select “Temporary chat”. Now, nothing you share with ChatGPT Plus during that chat will be added to its memory.

Come to think of it, a real friend, who only remembers what you want them to, could come in handy.

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This 4TB PCIe SSD can make your Windows laptop feel more like a MacBook Pro

The Apple MacBook Pro 16 still holds bragging rights when it comes to the maximum storage capacity available in a traditional portable laptop. 

Apple uses a proprietary approach, plugging memory chips directly into the motherboard to reach a whopping 8TB of storage, while only a handful of vendors even offer 4TB PCIe SSDs.

OWC has recently joined Sabrent as only the second consumer vendor to offer a 4TB NVMe PCIe M2.2280 SSD. OWC's Aurora P12 costs $ 1,149.88, while Sabrent's offering, known as Rocket, is available for only $ 849.99 from Amazon (roughly £690/AU$ 1335).

Why does that matter? Well, because you can plug two into a Windows laptop to match the MacBook Pro's 8TB capacity.

There’s only one laptop vendor worldwide (Eurocom), to our knowledge, that bundles its laptops with these 4TB drives – and they’re neither as cheap nor as portable as Apple’s slim-and-thin mobile workstation.

Apple charges $ 6,099 for the very top of the range 16-inch MacBook Pro, while Dell has, unfortunately, stopped pushing 2TB PCI NVMe SSD with its 64GB XPS 15 laptop

As for the Sabrent Rocket, it is an x4 model that comes bundled with the Acronis True Image software, Toshiba’s BICS3 flash and Sabrent’s own RKT303 controller. Its performance speeds can reach up to 3450 MB/s (read) and 3000 MB/s (write).

Just bear in mind, this is a Gen 3 rather than a Gen 4 SSD.

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The world’s lightest 17-inch laptop makes the MacBook Pro feel clunky

Laptops with large screens are usually considered unwieldy and cumbersome, unless you're talking about Apple's 16-inch MacBook Pro.

However, the LG Gram 17 is an exception, giving even Apple's slimline device a run for its money. Weighing only 2.95 pounds, it's hailed the lightest 17-inch laptop ever made.

In designing a super thin and light laptop with a 17-inch screen, LG has succeeded where all other have failed. The device has been so well received that retailing giant Costco even commissioned an exclusive version for its customers.

The older and cheaper version ($ 1,200/£929 at Amazon) comes with an 8th generation Intel Core i7 GPU, 16GB memory, and a 256GB SSD. It also has a battery LG says will power your device for nearly 20 hours – yes, 20 hours.

It's not waterproof or shockproof, but its magnesium alloy chassis makes it more resistant than most laptops of this size. It also boasts a dedicated numeric keypad and adheres to the rigorous MIL-STD-810G standards.

The 17-inch display (which has a resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels) is the cherry on the rather large cake.

It's worth noting UK customers will also be able to purchase the Gram 17 straight from Amazon, but should be wary of additional taxes levied.

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