I don’t really have anything against AI art, MidJourney, StableDiffusion etc

But it’s pissing me off more than a little bit how so many people post AI art claiming it’s art photography.

I see a ton of it on Flickr. Average and mediocre photographers suddenly from 2022 onward start posting these wonderful images with flawless colorwork and super cool black and whites. Labeled as photography. But then you zoom in and realize… oh right. It’s AI. And this guy is a fraud. Damn.

Again, I have nothing against the thing in itself. But claiming it’s photography is fraudulent. And it’s super scifi nightmarish to have to constantly be on the lookout for what might be real photos and what’s AI. And worst of all, very shortly we won’t be able to tell at all.

What if I really just want to admire photography? Why don’t these platforms do something about this shit?

Anyway… would love to hear your thoughts about that. Cheers.

  • CptUnderpants-@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Wedding photography is probably the best example of this - I don’t think most people can imagine a world where AI generated art would be sufficient to replace a wedding photographer who’s actually present at a real wedding, because the real world context of the wedding is what makes those photos significant, not just the quality of the photography itself.

    I mostly agree. For me personally, photography is special because I’m aphantasiasic (no visual memory) and photographs can put me in the memories more solidly.

    But I think that we’ll see hybrid AI/real photography in weddings within 5 years. What I mean by this is the in person photography will proceed as normal but then all the photos are used to create an AI model of the event to allow the client to have photographs which may not have actually been taken. Models combined with photogrametry would allow highly accurate fakes.

    The negative for us as photographers is that it will lower the bar. The level of skill and experience to produce a similar outcome to a low end professional will be minimal.

    Much like my day job (IT) AI poses a risk that ‘entry level’ jobs will be mostly disappear. How do you get to be a mid level professional in either field? Being an ‘entry level’ professional and working your way up as you gain experience. The risk is that mid levels will dry up because there are too few jobs at the entry level to produce the required number of mid levels etc.