AI created images vs. Photoshop fabrications. Is there a difference?

At least one professional philosopher-type thinks fear of AI is mostly a generalized future fear. https://www.overcomingbias.com/p/ai-fear-is-mostly-fear-of-future

I'm sure the armchair variety will be happy to expound on why this is wrong, because on the internet, there's always someone who is wrong.

... and always someone who assumes he's right enough to point that out. Small user-friendly drones showed up just a frog's croak ago, and got predictably weaponized just as fast. Tell the folks in Kiev that they shouldn't be afraid of the pace of technology. Of course, they necessarily use drones too. And the literal arms race over Ai has already begun. As a "sometimes" Bay Area resident, I presume you already know that the Tech industry here has three nearly equal tripod legs sustaining it : Biotech & Pharmaceutical, Computer and electronics R&D, and Defense applications. If anyone on earth knows how to lethally weaponize a squirt gun, it would probably be somewhere in the Bay Area here.

CMoore said:

There are WAY more nefarious things being done with tech and computers than is being discussed in this thread.

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I do not fear what AI will 'do to photography'...I fear what AI can do to fictionalize facts. A photo of the Pope clad in a very puffy white down ski jacket
is a real example of how AI can represent untruth, and allow even the unskilled at Photoshop to produce such fictitious portrayals.

In the graphic arts, computers eliminated typesetters, paste-up artists, many behind the scenes in the printing business who made color separations and printing plates. Computers totally upended the retouching business. I have no question that AI will have a similar affect on commercial photography, cutting out catalog/product photographers, lifestyle photographers and any type of photo-illustration for magazine/online articles or book covers. This is not fear, this is what is to come. AI is starting to make inroads in video. I wouldn't doubt if AI will soon (if not already) be able to produce tangible 3D printed objects, too.

AI is already being used in the medical field to analyze scans, it is probably doing engineering tasks and will be a part of our everyday work and lives.

wiltw said:

I do not fear what AI will 'do to photography'...I fear what AI can do to fictionalize facts. …

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I agree. Like stated earlier, AI will have no impact of my photography, drawing, painting, etc. But, the issue of “fictionalize facts” is huge. In my state, it is mandated by state law that schools teach “critical thinking skills,” that is, the ability to evaluate claims by researching the evidence. How well the schools are doing that is debatable (and I’m a retired teacher). We have one state in the South, a big one that starts with a “T,” that has pushed an effort to outlaw the teaching of critical thinking skills in public schools.

Of course, advertisers have played fast and loose with facts for many decades so much of this is not new.

VinceInMT said:

Of course, advertisers have played fast and loose with facts for many decades so much of this is not new.

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But so much more widespread, as is the lack of critical thinking. I, too, bemoan the lack of such skills in recent generations. And I blame it on miserable math and science teaching and the acceptance of poor performance in today's schools.

Pieter12 said:

But so much more widespread, as is the lack of critical thinking. I, too, bemoan the lack of such skills in recent generations. And I blame it on miserable math and science teaching and the acceptance of poor performance in today's schools.

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After having taught at the high school level for a bit over 2 decades, far be it from me to defend the performance of the American schools systems but I would point out that, as Alan alludes to, it’s more than the school system itself. We have, from the very same schools, students who excel and go on to become highly successful in our society and, from the very same schools, students who barely make it through and graduate barely literate.

Perhaps the power of AI can be harnessed to address some of this but change is very difficult to do in systems that are as firmly established in society as public education. We, Americans, have already done numerous studies comparing the performance of our schools to the dozen or so that outperform us on the international arena and we know what the differences are and are reluctant to make the necessarily changes. When I was teaching, I was heavily involved in school change efforts at the local level and was constantly met with resistance, usually with the response “we’ve never done it that way.” The one area where I felt I was successful was bringing technology into our district but many of my other endeavors met too many naysayers.

Again, perhaps AI is what will finally move the needle.

Photoshop & A.I. fabrications are merging into one, soon all digital photography will be worthless.


By contrast, provably analog photography is about to experience a golden re-birth / age!


I'm talking about fine-art photography here, commercial photography is a little different, although i anticipate tough times ahead for commercial photographers.

JMHO!

VinceInMT said:

After having taught at the high school level for a bit over 2 decades, far be it from me to defend the performance of the American schools systems but I would point out that, as Alan alludes to, it’s more than the school system itself. We have, from the very same schools, students who excel and go on to become highly successful in our society and, from the very same schools, students who barely make it through and graduate barely literate.

Perhaps the power of AI can be harnessed to address some of this but change is very difficult to do in systems that are as firmly established in society as public education. We, Americans, have already done numerous studies comparing the performance of our schools to the dozen or so that outperform us on the international arena and we know what the differences are and are reluctant to make the necessarily changes. When I was teaching, I was heavily involved in school change efforts at the local level and was constantly met with resistance, usually with the response “we’ve never done it that way.” The one area where I felt I was successful was bringing technology into our district but many of my other endeavors met too many naysayers.

Again, perhaps AI is what will finally move the needle.

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What are the differences and what changes would have to be done?

How would AI help?

Dazzer123 said:

Photoshop & A.I. fabrications are merging into one, soon all digital photography will be worthless.


By contrast, provably analog photography is about to experience a golden re-birth / age!


I'm talking about fine-art photography here, commercial photography is a little different, although i anticipate tough times ahead for commercial photographers.

JMHO!

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I agree.

Alan Edward Klein said:

What are the differences and what changes would have to be done?

How would AI help?

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In an attempt to not get too far afield, let me take the 2nd question first. That AI is here and that students are using it is a given. Schools can acknowledge that and use it as a “teachable moment” by encouraging students to bring in the AI results they’ve used and then teaching them how to verify that the information is correct. This is the heart of teaching critical thinking skills.

The concern that AI is used to produce book reports, term papers, research papers, and even artwork for class assignments, etc. is a valid issue, however, it reveals a mistaken belief that these forms of assessment, called “summative assessments,” exhibit the best practice for teaching in learning. This not the case. “Formative assessment” provides better outcomes. In this approach, the teacher makes one-on-one contact with every student, hopefully during every class session, checking on their progress and offering constructive feedback to direct them to the desired objectives of the lesson plan. By the time the final project is produced, whatever it is, there should be no question that it is the student’s own work. Incorporating AI results into this provides the opportunity for the student to “evaluate” the quality of the information that the AI has produced and the ability to evaluate is a much more complex objective than regurgitating what was read in a book or heard in a lecture.

As for the first question about the differences, there are many. One, is that teachers in many other countries must meet very high standards in order to enter the profession. While the statistics are complex and really need to be analyzed to fully understand the nuances, in America, teachers generally represent those with lower SAT/ACT scores than other professions. In other countries, teachers are assigned a master teacher who guides them through their apprenticeship, much the way it is done in the trades, moving from apprentice to journeyman to master. In America, new teachers are given keys to the classroom and have to fend for themselves.

Perhaps the major difference is that in most other countries, school is about its academic mission. Social activities, clubs, and sports are not part of that mission and if the student wishes to participate in them, it is done in clubs after school. For me, this is a big change that would improve the American system but it’s simply not going to happen because “we have always done it this way.” As a classroom teacher, I was annoyed by the emphasis put on sports, how students were excused from my classes to participate in them, how classes were canceled so we could have pep rallies, and how more money was spent on a single sport than the math or science departments. Trophy cases line the hallways celebrating athletic achievement with little to celebrate academic ones. This all sends a message as to what is important and students respond to that.

OK, I could go on but it’s really off-topic so I’ll leave it there.

Alan Edward Klein said:

What are the differences and what changes would have to be done?

How would AI help?

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More parent interest and encouragement starting at a very young age and continuing through the complete education path.

No. While AI can add to solving problems, it cannot do everything at this time.

Rein in the politics folks, or the thread will be closed.

MattKing said:

Rein in the politics folks, or the thread will be closed.

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MattKing said:

Rein in the politics folks, or the thread will be closed.

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I’m sorry, I don’t detect much in the way of politics in this discussion. Are you upset by the criticism of American education? That seems to be more of a social issue to me as depicted here.

Pieter12 said:

I’m sorry, I don’t detect much in the way of politics in this discussion. Are you upset by the criticism of American education? That seems to be more of a social issue to me as depicted here.

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You are missing the history before you joined were some people regularly drove good and great threads to the SoapBox by using the same slights and innuendos exhibited in certain posts. The monitors have learned the absolute need to cut that crap out as soon as it starts. Kudos for the monitor's prompt action.

Sirius Glass said:

The unwashed are also unreachable.

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Don't you mean 'untouchable'

Pieter12 said:

I’m sorry, I don’t detect much in the way of politics in this discussion. Are you upset by the criticism of American education? That seems to be more of a social issue to me as depicted here.

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No, it is some of the extensions to those criticisms: references to state law and inflation and high divorce rates ......

BMbikerider said:

Don't you mean 'untouchable'

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Unreachable, untouchable, uneducated, unwashed …