I’ve been reading the many thoughtful posts to this week’s Lens-Artists Challenge on Artificial Intelligence and Photography. As part of the challenge, I presented two images, one captured by a cell phone camera and one entirely created by Firefly inside of Photoshop.
I promised a reveal today and found it quite interesting that the majority picked the AI image as real. The opening photo is the original captured by my Samsung S23U off the coast of Naples, Florida.
The other is an AI-generated image created in Photoshop with the text prompt, “Sunset over the ocean with an island peninsula.” I accidentally revealed the answer on the images at my Flickr site. I always post higher quality images in Flickr in a corresponding album. Those who looked at the images there might have noticed that Sunset on the Gulf of Mexico had the camera displayed in the metadata included below the image. That information is blank on the AI-generated image. I’d forgotten to remove the camera data on the real image.
One person rightfully noted that most cellphone cameras have their own version of AI built-in, therefore images processed in the camera are also AI modified. I won’t argue against that point, I’ve read that elsewhere as well. It seems that more and more, AI is becoming part of our digital lives, like it or not. At least the image from the camera can be sworn as capture of an existing place. I did very little in post production to tweak the image. That golden-hour sky and backlit trees are pretty much how I remember the place (of course, my brain is likely remembering the image rather than the reality.)
For those who want to experiment with AI, or use it as an aid to improve your blog posts, the WordPress Block Editor includes an AI Assistant. In the right margin below the Post tab, the assistant provides suggestions to improve the title of your post with justification for the improvement. A button called Generate feedback provides suggestions on items to include that could improve your post. Finally, a featured image, generated by AI, can be attached to your post. The image above is the image suggested for my original challenge post. I didn’t use it in my original post, but it certainly is a creative image that would work for any post on the topic of Artificial Intelligence.
I ran the tool just before adding these paragraphs to share what the AI Assistant thought of my post. The Generate image tool provided the image above, but gave an option to provide a description to create an image more to my specifications. It includes a button to make the AI image the Featured Image for the post.
The Improve title button provides three options, pressing the selection again will provide additional suggestions.
The Generate feedback button analyzes the text and provides suggestions for improving reader interaction.
In conclusion, I’ve had my fill of AI for the week. >grin< I enjoyed reading everyone’s comments and posts on this week’s challenge. Artificial Intelligence usage in applications is permeating the digital environment. One thing is sure, like it or not, we will be exposed to the strengths and weaknesses of the technology for years to come.
John Steiner
Journeys with Johnbo 
I gave AI a go on my words in a post and it changed the intent of my words 🙄
I’ve had that happen more than once in my experiments. One has to be careful, also, about “facts” that AI generates. Some interesting stories about AI gone wrong in professional circles have embarrassed more than a few.
I reckon the embarrassment of confession that you didn’t actually write the words would be devastating
Oh dear, I guessed wrong! It seems AI can sometimes be more convincing than the examples I generated for my own post 😆 I don’t think I’ll be using it much in the future, but I will have a look at those WP features in order to understand them better should I ever feel the need to use them – thanks!
That AI photo was pretty convincing. Now we get to question everything we see. >grin<
I give a hard pass on using AI in photography.
Understood!
I didn’t mean to be mean, John, oops! 🫣
I didn’t take it as such, John. I know what you are saying, and you are certainly not alone in that. No offense taken.
Oh, okay. Wishing you and yours a great weekend, John.
I think that as time goes by, more people will embrace certain aspects of AI. Anyone shooting with a cell phone is letting the phone’s algorithms edit their photos. The same goes for non-RAW format.
No escape… it is a done deal.
Very interesting, John. Thank you for continuing the conversation. I understand that the cell phone cameras include some AI, but at least, in my humble opinion, the photos still have integrity; that is, they don’t deviate from what I see or saw. I still think AI could be a useful tool if you’re someone who wants to create images from scratch, but when I see all the beauty around me, I wonder why anyone would use AI 🙂
Indeed, I have no issues with tools using AI to help the artist do something they would have done more laboriously. My favorite examples include removing unwanted objects which can take much more time using the clone tool.
You make a good point, John. My husband takes macro photos of insects, and he will laboriously go through and remove any little blemish he sees. It can take him hours. That’s his choice, but I can definitely understand why someone would prefer not to.
It’s been such a fun week John, I’ve enjoyed all of the responses very much. It seems we are all on the same page, but then again we are all photographers so I suppose we should have expected that!. Here’s to those who enjoy AI-generation – I have no issue with it as long as you don’t call it photography!!!
I am happy to have the experience of sharing and seeing so many interesting responses. Thanks, Tina!
Interesting results John, I think I need to experiment a lot more.
It’s fun in the short term, but truly experimentation. It might be fun to create some interesting backgrounds for family portraiture. 🙂
It has been a fascinating week of learning John. All. the results have been interesting. And I have enjoyed seeing people, not only come up with creations, but also venture into the AI territory. Such a great week.
Indeed, I had fun researching and experimenting… Almost as much fun as seeing the responses.
Yay!
…and here’s one more!
I forget which one I guessed, John, but yes your real image speaks volumes. It has a teensy bit of imperfection which makes sense in our own pics. The Florida image is too perfect, but still gorgeous. Looks like a LOT of us enjoyed the AI prompt and have excitedly run down many rabbit holes in our further exploration of AI. So much so that I had to play again for this Sunday’s color challenge (pastels) to generate an image shown at the end of the post.
I love learning the techniques in image editing so many others have shared. It’s also interesting to note that our phones use a bit of auto AI to enhance our images. Whatever. Talented photographers know which images not to share if they look too fake! Enjoy the rest of the weekend.
Thanks, Terri. I wasn’t sure how this challenge would be received, but I was pleasantly surprised in how much interest it generated.
This has been a long, interesting lesson, John! The theme was a difficult one, but rendered a lot of different answers and images. Thank you for taking it on!