It used to be that a picture, or video, carried a lot of weight in terms of evidence. I don’t think this is the case anymore with the advent of AI. In a relatively short amount of time, AI capabilities have transformed and undermined the credibility of photos and video. Creating or altering images with AI is inexpensive, easy, and available to everyone. Within minutes, (or mere seconds!) AI can generate a realistic image designed to fool us, sometimes by imitating or mimicking something real with a few specific tweaks. Even worse, it’s getting more difficult to tell when AI is generating something.
I think about all the wars going on with their horrific photos. Even while I can’t imagine what it’s like for these people to live through these realities, I know that others sit there and use AI to generate fake images of these wars. I’ve seen them and they look very realistic and seem believable to somebody like myself who lives far away and never witnessed such events in person. Yet, these photos only serve to muddy up accounts of what’s really happening. They often get posted and reposted, mingling with the real images making it impossible to determine fact from fabrication.
Photos I take with my smartphone have AI built in. Some features, however, remain enabled, no matter what. For example, on some photos, an eerie, sparkling white border flashes around the main focus of the image. I’ve tried to Google what this means and how to turn it off, but haven’t been successful yet.
I suppose in some ways the big tech companies think baking in all these AI features is helpful. However, they do a disservice to us all by not allowing us to choose which features we want to use or disable. Maybe I don’t want AI automatically removing blemishes and imperfections in my photos. Maybe I don’t want AI making suggestions for me about parts of my photo with weird, shiny white borders. Or at least I don’t want these things happening without being able to have a choice.
Photos have made so many wonderful advances. I love being able to take digital photos and share them. I’ve even grown to love making digital scrapbooks. But I don’t like the way it’s so easy to manipulate and fool people with access to a powerful AI tool and a few clever prompts.