Make any image editable with Canva’s Magic Layers

What if an image wasn’t just an image, but an editable template? That’s the premise of Canva’s new Magic Layers technology, which uses AI to interpret an image and turn it into an editable file.

Canva’s Magic Layers uses the company’s own AI design model to analyze an image. The technology promises to separate portions of the image into editable layers, such as separating the bride and groom from a wedding photo. If there was a caption or overlay (“Congratulations, Mike and Diane!”), the Magic Layers technology promises that text could be separated out and edited, too.

If you create or edit a file in Microsoft Paint or Adobe Photoshop, all the layers eventually get smooshed down into a single final image that’s exported as a file. Canva’s Magic Layers goes the opposite route, trying to make sense of what should be separated and edited.

It’s a big swing from an AI perspective, with implications for everything from design to disinformation. It’s also unclear how good the technology will be at distinguishing individual elements of the scene and separating them into layers.

Canva says that the Magic Layers technology should work with just about any JPEG or PNG file that you can upload to its software, at least in beta. More capabilities will be added in the future. The image file is then uploaded into the Canva editor, where you can modify it.

Magic Layers begins rolling out today in public beta in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia, with global availability to follow, Canva said.