TTG Plus > FAQs > More on FAQ #608

608. How will AI-GC affect photography?

  • A. For the public . . .

    . . . AI-generated content will permanently shatter any illusions left over from the 20th century that “You can judge the trustworthiness of a photograph just by looking at it.”

    This realization is two or three decades overdue. For years the best advice for “How not to get fooled by altered photographs” has been “Always be very skeptical, no matter how convincing a photograph may look.”

    Encouraging widespread skepticism is not problematic now that TTG makes it easy to label photographs that are not doctored.

  • B. For non-TTG-suited photos . . .

    . . . AI-generated content can be a very useful tool.

    That’s because for most categories of non-TTG-suited photographs, it is easier — and far less limiting — to make both small and large fixes and additions to the photograph by adding AI-GC rather than limiting oneself to camera-based options...

    . . . and once viewers know the images are not TTG-qualified, they are unlikely to care which tools were used to make those images.

    AI-GC effectively brings a nuclear weapon into what previously hadn’t been much more than a pillow fight over how much non-TTG photographs should be “enhanced” after they are recorded.

    For many photographers who aren’t concerned with TTG, added AI-GC will eventually offer unlimited creative possibilities.

  • C. But for TTG photos . . .

    — that is, photographs that depict only “what the camera lens saw at the moment the picture was taken”—

    — AI-generated content won’t really change anything.

    That’s because using AI to make changes that disqualify a photo from TTG is no different from using older methods of making disqualifying changes (see FAQ #120).

    However . . .

    . . . there will be at least one interesting indirect effect of AI-GC on TTG photos:

    It will become much more difficult to impress viewers with TTG photos now that creators of non-TTG images can make full use of added AI-GC and are no longer limited to photography-based tools.

    Fortunately, that same difficulty could increase the value of impressive-looking TTG photos when viewers realize that the photographer did not use AI-GC.

    See also FAQ #418 and see #5 in this viewpoint.