TTG Plus > Key


TTG-only zone (TOZ)

An area in which all of the images are TTG (and thus are free of AI)

“For viewers to trust an image provider, what matters isn’t the number of TTG images that are published (that quantity can be small).

“What matters is whether the publisher clearly distinguishes any TTG photos from non-TTG images.” Source

  • 1. What good is a TTG-only zone?

    A. It enhances an image publisher’s credibility (see quote above).

    B. A TTG-only zone can be a daily resource for members of the public who don’t trust image sources that mix AI images with non-AI images.

    C. A TTG-only zone can serve anyone looking for “go-to” image sources where they can instantly check the trustworthiness of startling images they see online. (“This so called ‘news photo’ looks like AI; I’m going to check my go-to TOZ, and if it’s not there I’ll assume it’s AI.”)

    ________

    The TOZes of trusted image providers     are the most likely candidates for becoming those go-to sources in “C” above (or becoming “islands of trust in a sea of AI slop,” as it says in FAQ #103).

  • 2. How does a TOZ work?

    • A single statement* reassures viewers that all of the images in the designated area are guaranteed to be TTG-qualified by those images’ creators.

    • A TOZ would typically be an area within a platform, app, or website.

    *Publishers have complete freedom in how they configure their TOZ .

  • 3. Why just a “zone” in a platform and not the entire platform?

    Because making an entire platform 100% TTG can be unrealistic.

    Even the most-trusted newspapers, for example, have to pay the bills — and thus they will increasingly be publishing images that contain AI-GC in their “non-news” sections.

    A TOZ lets image-providers “wall off” any area or section where they publish only TTG-qualified images (see also #5 below).

  • 4. Why not just say “AI-free zone”?

    Because saying that an image is “AI-free” is no reassurance that it is trustworthy. It is easy to deceive viewers without using AI.

    Not one of the many “digital manipulation” controversies of digital photography’s first 40 years involved AI (Photoshop did fine without AI for three decades).

    A photo that is “AI-free” could still be lacking all 9 characteristics of trusted photographs.

  • 5. And “TTG-only” means “no exceptions”?

    Yes, because viewers who find even one doctored image where they don’t expect one are unlikely to trust any of the images in that setting.

    Thus the most-trustworthy examples of TTG-only zones would have a zero-tolerance policy: There would be no exceptions for graphics that incorporate photographs (“photo-illustrations”) and no exceptions for showing the pictures at issue in high-profile news stories about non-TTG images.

    For example, in a news article about a controversy involving a non-TTG image of a national leader, readers would be pointed to an area outside the TTG-only zone to view the image under discussion.

    (Readers might even have to pass through an intermediate page that makes it clear that the reader is leaving the TOZ and going to a location that is not TTG, because trusted providers may want to reinforce that “wall of separation.”)

    See also the page on AI creep.

  • 6. But mightn’t the public realize that “anything goes” outside of TTG-only zones and they won’t fully trust anything outside a TOZ?

    Yes.