Great article on The Verge by Sarah Jeong on AI and photography, which anyone with an ounce of passion towards photography should read.

This article rightfully states about how photography is based on trust, and can be used in deception in legal and criminal cases. But there is another angle to it. I love capturing photos, it’s been a passion. When I see a great photo, I want to know how the photographer took it, how long they waited for the light to be perfect, what gear did they use.

With Google’s Reimagine tool, you can add pretty much anything to a photo. Samsung did this too with the Galaxy Fold 6 last month too. I am all onboard the Shot on iPhone campaign, and I love photos from other competing Android devices too. But what now? Is the sea on this photo even real? Rhetorical question.

I don’t want to pixel peep to see if something has been manipulated by AI. In Google’s case, the images modified by Reimagine will have a line of metadata saying so. Which 1. is removable and 2. I don’t want to look at the metadata to appreciate a good photograph.

I simply hate this. Apple avoided this by not letting AI generate any realistic images, it was a conscious decision and I applaud them for that. But this is not a post about praising Apple. If one company does it, we all loose. “Real Camera” manufactures like Sony, Canon, and Fuji, etc won’t get onboard with AI on their cameras, but more and more “photographical” photos are taken on smartphones. Samsung and Google have just started and it’s only going to get better. Realistic image generation or manipulation is going to be the norm in a few years, and photography enthusiasts will feel like something has been taken away from them.

Once again, I HATE THIS.