As a form of historic documentation or artistic work, traditional form of photography is always considered essential part of the society. Photography, either through documentary photography or photojournalism has always informed the way people perceive the world around them. Traditionally, people have relied on photography as a source of information and inspiration. This was for a simple reason; the photos were always real and represented a real-life occurrence.
Since invention of Artificial Intelligence (AI), an image economy has been created and as a result, people have found it difficult to trust the images they see in their everyday lives.
In traditional photography, the camera lens receives light rays and uses glass to redirect them to one point. However, AI-generated pictures are produced based on natural language descriptions called “promtps”.
In today’s world, everyone, including photographers use AI-generated photos. Lest we forget, anyone can use artificial intelligence to produce AI-generated photos. Thus, it is safe to argue that humans do not know how to differentiate between AI-generated photos and the traditionally taken ones because no special skill is required to produce a successful image that imitates reality.
Human Difficulty in Differentiating Between AI-Generated and Real Images
AI can generate multiple images, different colors and styles resembling real images, all thanks to rapid technological advancements. When you remember the Sony World Photography Awards 2023, when AI-generated image won the first position, you have to think about how difficult it is to distinguish between AI-generated images and real (traditional) ones.
Recent research shows that the misclassification of real images from AI-generated ones by humans stands at 37 percent. This means that 37 percent of the photos presented to humans were misclassified. Photographer Boris Eldagsen who won the Sony World Photography Award did not accept it and instead gave the reason why; “The threat is to democracy and to photojournalism, we have so many fake images, we need to come up with a way to show people what is what”.
The question that is arising from the award is that, if an AI-generated image can win an award in a photography competition and be perceived as a real one, then how much truth is there in our reality? This is a question that must be lingering in people’s minds and no can certainly answer it.
What Future Looks Like
One wouldn’t be mistaken to imagine that there is a disruption in the photography industry. You cannot trust even the photo taken by your phone because even images taken by phones today are powered by AI. Is it really photography if imaginative human beings can work with clever systems to produce images that reminds a lot about photography?
Even though AI-generated images can win awards and still continue to confuse humans, it is unable to observe the interesting aspects and it fails to motivate chances in the photographic scenes. Traditional photography on the other hand, can do these comprehensively while also enabling the engagement between the photographer and their objects.
Although there is an advent of digital photography (AI), that is disrupting analog film, which has been the primary medium for photography, none of these two distinct sets of photography are going anywhere in the near future. It is just important to prioritize responsible creation and application of AI for its positive impact on the society.