Updating the AI Lens
Artificial Intelligence is one of the burning issues of the day for so many professional photographers, so is it something that has the potential to steal your business, or could it instead become your best friend in terms of the post-production time it allows you to save? In this multi-part article we examine AI Theft, Creation, Support, Safeguarding and Fake News.
WORDS: TERRY HOPE SQUARE IMAGES: MS COPILOT AI CREATED BY DANE PESTANO
PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHERS HAVE plenty of challenges as they look to pursue a successful career, but perhaps one of the most pernicious is the perception of the danger posed by Artificial Intelligence. There are threats on a number of levels, some of which are very real, while others are things that creatives fear could happen, but which have yet to come to pass. Nonetheless, at a time when competition in the industry has never been greater and income for many is being squeezed, the thought of an extra distraction from advancing technology is far from welcome.
So how worried should professionals be and, to balance out some of the worries about work disappearing, should creatives also be taking on board the fact that AI is also powering some incredible post-production tools that offer massive savings in terms of time that would otherwise be spent on some of the more mundane of selection and editing tasks?
It’s important to get the balance right, and to consider how big an impact, for better or worse, AI could have on your business. Also worth looking at is whether the anticipated fall out in the creative arena is likely to be as total as some are anticipating and, in a worst case scenario, are there are any steps that could be taken to circumnavigate this threat?
Stealing the work
It’s hard perhaps to see how AI could impose on many areas of photography, such as wedding coverage, since a human being has to be present to cover the event. The danger here is posed more by the increasing quality of smartphone cameras, but even so this shouldn’t result in pictures that can challenge those produced by a professional at the top of their game.
A bigger issue might be the ease with which the likes of pack shots can be created using a software program and, similarly, automotive photography can now be undertaken without the actual vehicle having to be present, saving on time, expense, the risk of an undercover new model being spotted out on the road and the need for a vehicle to be total perfection in the final shots.
