Snowy Owl captured by D2 / 400f2.8 w/TC-14II
Why have I posted an ancient image of mine of a Snowy Owl when talking about AI? It’s because there are all these horrible AI-generated images and videos of Snowy Owl in a nest with these adorable chicks perched on a TREE! There are no TREES in the Arctic. Snowy Owls nest on the ground. But if you don’t know this basic biology, how would you know what you’re seeing is AI-generated? And that’s what gives me a headache!
Being informed is always the best weapon when our sensibilities are under siege. In this day and age though, staying informed, educated, is a fulltime job all by itself. When I look to get informed, only to find AI crud, it makes it really hard to get informed to be able to recognize AI outside my sphere of knowledge. It just gives me a headache!
What gets me is, history is repeating itself. Back in May, 1998, The Atlantic published an article, Photography in the Age of Falsification. This was long before AI, heck, the internet was in its infancy, and yet, there it is in print. Knowing this doesn’t lessen the headache. We MUST stay diligent and informed! Thirty years later, we kinda have the same issue with the same root cause, it’s just that the elephant on the screen is AI.