AI Eraser can remove objects from photos and generate a replacement background to blend in with the rest of the image. It'll be available on the OnePlus 12, OnePlus 12R, OnePlus 11, OnePlus Open and OnePlus Nord CE 4 starting this month. The company says it uses its own proprietary model to power AI Eraser and plans to introduce more AI features later this year.

Until now, OnePlus was one of the only smartphone-makers not pushing generative AI as a main selling point -- a stance that my colleague Andrew Lanxon called "refreshing" in his OnePlus 12 review. The company's biggest competitors, namely Samsung and Google, have been going all-in on generative AI and other AI-fueled tools.

Samsung, for example, introduced a suite of features on the Galaxy S24 series called Galaxy AI, which it recently began rolling out to select other Galaxy devices. Among those features is Generative Edit, a tool that similarly uses AI to delete or move objects in a photo and refill the leftover space. Before that, Google introduced Magic Editor on the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro, which is also designed for removing, relocating or resizing elements in a photo. Google's Magic Eraser tool was introduced years ago on the Pixel 6, but has been made available as a cloud-based tool for Google One subscribers.

OnePlus' announcement is yet another sign that generative AI is poised to play a larger role in upcoming smartphones. Apple is expected to announce new AI-based features as part of its next major iPhone update, presumably called iOS 18, according to Bloomberg. Market research firm IDC also expects we'll see a surge in phones equipped to handle AI computing. It predicts that 170 million so-called "next-gen AI" smartphones will be shipped in 2024, compared to 51 million in 2023.