Probably when writing "hate AI" here the meaning was hate the often useless text chat bot. Google Photo face recognition was there before the new hipe and is probably not designated talked by primarily as "AI" by the general public.
I don't need or want that from most applications, especially a photo viewer.
It almost always does but only because it is offered this way, it is not a hard technical requirement. There is nothing that would prevent offering a standalone version running locally for customers with their hardware powerful enough.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_effect
Again, you’ve gotta remember that originally, playing chess was considered an unfathomable expression of machine thinking. Now it’s a problem trivially solved in CS112 class.
It’s a lot less magic when you see behind the curtain.