I'm a photographer/videographer so to make this clear for a start, AI image generation tools make my job one of the safest on the planet.
This might surprise some people, and I often pose this as a question - why is photography/videography so safe from AI when that's literally half of what the modern usage of "AI" does (the other half being LLMs)? I ask people to think about it, and discount technology - no matter how good AI image generation gets, it will never replace real photographers or videographers. It is nothing to do with technology, the answer is way way more simple.
I'll reveal it now so this thread makes sense - it's simply because AI is not a time machine. I take photos/videos of music festivals/nightclub events mainly, and even if AI could perfectly create a photo/video of such an event, it would be utterly useless because it didn't actually happen. It isn't reality, which is what photos/videos are all about.
The same can be said for pretty much any type of photo/video work, from corporate to weddings to events to portraits to science/geography to astronomy, the list goes on. The whole point is you're making images of real things that actually happened, even a perfect "fake" AI image is totally pointless. Even if AI could make perfect images of "a wedding" (and it can't, we'll get to that) you wouldn't see any of your actual guests, location, decor, clothing, flowers, etc. It's like being an architectural or structural engineering photographer and simply submitting stock photos of the Great Pyramid of Giza when they've asked you to get images of the new skyscraper your client is building.
For a while I made one exception - product photography, something I've never done. But even some light research and thinking into that, I realised I'm as guilty as everyone who thinks AI is going to take over. Again, reason is way way more simple than I thought - how does AI make a photo of your new product? You need to supply it with many many many reference images of your product because it didn't previously exist. So there's no point using AI if you're having to take loads of good quality, well lit reference images anyway.
At this point I'd like to point out AI as a tool is very good, and is the broader definition of AI. AI denoise in Lightroom for example saves many many photos in my line of work. Image to noise ratios in digital cameras hasn't really improved since about 2011. My Sony A7RV, a camera costing £3000, has the same low light performance as my Nikon D5200 from 2013, a camera you can pick up for about £150 with a decent kit-lens.
But this is all Narrow Artificial Intelligence, ANI, which has been around for decades, and runs locally. Cameras have been using ANI for autofocus since the mid 1980s. And this is all image generation tools are, ANI with insane amounts of data, but requiring enormous amounts of internet bandwidth and data centres to do it. They cannot create anything of their own, they simply amalgamate existing data to make a final image. They are no closer to AGI or ASI than a caveman throwing more wood on a fire to make it hotter was to creating a nuclear fusion reactor.
I'm not even overly bothered that all this shit means a pair of SD cards costs four times what they did 18 months ago. I'd accept it if AI was as good as people make out. But it simply isn't.
My gripe here comes from the fact people insist that AI image generation can do things it cannot, and people are seemingly swept away by it. There's even a subreddit "isthisAI" (not sure if we can link to subs on here) which is full of either very very obviously not AI videos, or very very obviously AI videos, with people still debating them.
There was one today with some coal miners working in extremely dangerous conditions, and while the main answers were "it isn't" the main explanation was "this kind of dangerous work still happens" and not "no, AI cannot create a video this realistic".
This utterly flabbergasted me so I asked someone who pointed out "it's an old video before AI got sophisticated" exactly what "sophisticated" AI model can create such a video?
Nearly 200 downvotes and no answer, one guy did post a list of AI services that "he" claimed could do it - AI LLM slop, and most of his examples don't even actually generate video, nevermind crappy obviously-fake video. He actually openly admitted to "asking ChatGPT".
I'm totally convinced this is a grift - whenever you ask someone to create a realistic AI video they simply cannot do it. I'm assuming a lot of people are in denial, but I also think a lot of this is like Bitcoin - people who invested in it thinking it would make them loads of money, but actually it's just a few at the top who will really make money. Like cryptocurrency, I think AI image generation could be an amazing force for good, but like cyrpto, it seems to be something that won't catch on and is simply a ponzi scheme. Unlike cryptocurrency, it doesn't actually work. Bitcoin or the like makes perfect sense and works great, but governments are (understandably in fairness) scared of it. AI image generation doesn't work, at all, and is just a massive grift to get people to invest in it.
To note two things -
I actually think AI Slop is quite funny and in some cases useful. I've no issue with an amusing video of a male world leader growing massive tits that burst out of their suit. Childish, but vaguely funny in a group chat. Me and some mates run a local club night and make no money on it, we do it for fun. If you don't count the free beer, we actually lose a bit on it. An AI generated poster, as none of us are graphic designers, is fine and does the job.
To Change My View and get delta, you need to provide an example, the model used, and the prompt you used. And to make clear I mean an EXAMPLE - an actual video. A common tactic from the AI investor bros is to write about a model/service that "can definitely do this bro, you're just ignorant" then not post an actual video. You cannot just claim something exists but not show your work. You must also include instructions on how to generate a similar/identical result.
To provide some examples I'm looking for so you can complete this task without cheating -
- A video of a sunset from Cafe Mambo in Ibiza which then pans around with a DJ playing who has a residency in Ibiza this summer. Many DJs have residencies in Ibiza clubs all summer, and with the clubs not opening until midnight in most cases, many will play an early evening set around sunset at Mambo. Pick any you like, Ibiza Spotlight's club calendar is a good starting point. This is the location I'm talking about - https://maps.app.goo.gl/TKf6m6YXGEa7goJv6 Pan around and you'll see where the DJ is playing. It must be a real DJ who played in Ibiza this summer, or even in recent years.
- A video of former Top Gear/Grand Tour presenter James May having broken down on the Snake Pass here in England, in a Maserati Biturbo. The alternator belt is stuck and on attempting to turn over the engine, it breaks and he gives his signature "oh cock".
- A video of Eddie Hall or Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson, current world deadlift record holders, breaking the current 510kg record at 600kg, with a clear and convincing view they have done so, including close ups on the plates.
- A video of Jennie from Blackpink falling over on stage during a performance and shouting "oh fucking hell, you cunt" as the mic fades off and crew rushing on to help her.
- A video of Lewis Hamilton crashing his Ferrari at Eau Rouge in Spa, in a near identical way to the infamous BAR crashes of Jacques Villeneuve and Ricardo Zonta in 1999 (which you can see here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXy2SCM2O-M ).
- This video - https://www.reddit.com/r/isthisAI/comments/1w4fpz9/comment/p7a0a2o/?context=3
They will all be judged by me, my mum (who is 75 with vision problems), my mate (who is into powerlifting, hence the deadlift example, he's also big into AI), my wife (loves Blackpink, hates Jennie for reasons she cannot explain), and the Is It AI? sub.
So please please, change my view.
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