Oh woe fell upon us back then, how could we ever believe an image again, when - *gasp* - wait until you hear this - the power to create false images became so widely available. Any troll in their basement could make a passable fake photograph, where previously that was a highly professional task. Surely this meant the fall of Truth, as nobody would ever be able to trust anything they did not see themselves.
Then people grew up with it, and it stopped being ScaryTech.
As Nilay Patel at The Verge has observed, there’s a crucial difference. Doing edit work or creating a fake image with Photoshop takes skill - it’s very hard to do effectively and if you haven’t got a lot of experience you’ll never manage to persuade people.
But with generative AI it becomes something that anyone can do and the sheer volume becomes overwhelming.
However the point is valid. I will write a little more about how we can ensure that real photos really are real next week.
We always say things like “technology was meant to make our lives easier” but I’m beginning to wonder why we thought anyone was genuinely promising us that. These days tech innovators are just finding more ways to waste our time.
What a great article….i have to say I find your observations very insightful. I look forward to next week’s article.
"It's AI generated" seems to be the updated version of "It's Photoshopped".
https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/331:_Photoshops
Oh woe fell upon us back then, how could we ever believe an image again, when - *gasp* - wait until you hear this - the power to create false images became so widely available. Any troll in their basement could make a passable fake photograph, where previously that was a highly professional task. Surely this meant the fall of Truth, as nobody would ever be able to trust anything they did not see themselves.
Then people grew up with it, and it stopped being ScaryTech.
As Nilay Patel at The Verge has observed, there’s a crucial difference. Doing edit work or creating a fake image with Photoshop takes skill - it’s very hard to do effectively and if you haven’t got a lot of experience you’ll never manage to persuade people.
But with generative AI it becomes something that anyone can do and the sheer volume becomes overwhelming.
However the point is valid. I will write a little more about how we can ensure that real photos really are real next week.
We always say things like “technology was meant to make our lives easier” but I’m beginning to wonder why we thought anyone was genuinely promising us that. These days tech innovators are just finding more ways to waste our time.
“we have to not be indifferent” - couldn’t agree more, just not sure how one manages that with those who support trump (or Badenoch/Jenrick)