More Thoughts

Apparently, I was in a better mood when I created this A&I generated set of images than I was the first time.

There is an ongoing discussion about the use and morality of A&I generated images. That’s good. Most photography discussions have degraded into gear oriented comments.

Should we or shouldn’t we use A&I imagery is really a very basic discussion. The real discussion is where and how does the software gather original imagery. And, how we use words to create the image from our brains.

Most people who oppose the entire computer generated image issue say that the computer is stealing photographs from which to create.

That isn’t it at all.

They scarp images from the internet. Billions of them.

Image scrapping has been a thing for well before A&I software appeared on the scene. The companies that do it don’t care about this photograph or that photograph. They care about the data — ones and zeros — contained in them. Once you have that, a particular photograph is irrelevant.

That horse has been out of the barn for ages. You don’t think Disney or Marvel films are created from whole clothe do you? Movie creators have been scrapping images for years and years.

A larger point is copyright issues and violations. In a normal world you can track your work. This hasn’t been a normal world in years. Pinterest saw to that. An image that shows up there is shared and re-shared until nobody knows who the hell created it. I often see photo credit lines that read, “from the internet.” What kind of credit line is that?

These are the real issues.

Interestingly, if Elon Musk can somehow get out of his commitment to buy Twitter, the next possible buyer is Pinterest, so say Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway. If you don’t know them, Google them. They are as heavy as it comes when it comes to the digital world and how it impacts the financial world.

Pinterest? Really?