The Thing About AI
Readers Branch Dragons
I’ve been on the margins of AI for a long time…I’m a fan of Jules Verne, Asimov, HG Wells, etc., and was fascinated by “2001: A Space Odyssey.” HAL 9000 was a real thing, well, if not then it certainly is now. T’was inevitable that HAL would become real…truth starts in fiction and hope, I think. But the issue might be, where is the real edge between AI and “not AI?”
It’s not a stretch to say AI is a tool not unlike other tools we already use and are comfortable using. It’s also not a stretch to say that the first photographs were labeled “magic,” perhaps the 18th century version of AI. I’ve used AI for years in photography…I’ve adjusted the colors, the tones, the size and lots more to the images I’ve made. I’ve modified images as part of my art…the technology allowing me to make such images is, well, magic to me. I’m not a photojournalist and so am not ethically bound to never change an image…although I bet they adjust colors, etc. So where is the AI line?
The image above is partly from a new Apple program. The bridge is truly in my community, I “removed” the houses from the far side of the bridge making the bridge the predominant component in a lonely landscape. But then…based on a large “murder” of crows we saw yesterday, I wanted to add some winged creatures. I typed into the new Apple program the term, “Dragon roosting” and “Dragon flying” and got the two dragons you see in my image (the third dragon is a transformed image of the other flying dragon). So what is my image?
(Some of you are turning away in disgust muttering “Abomination!” )
I think it’s art…it’s not just a photograph, it’s not just AI, it’s a hybrid, my hybrid. It came from my mind, both parts. I found the image, I changed the colors in the image to go from RAW to what I remember; I wanted the feeling of a lonely landscape so I created one. And then I wanted to include something different…I asked Apple to create me a murder of dragons. Apple thought some, beeped, and I had them.
So I haven’t made up my mind on what I think of AI…well, except I do think it’s a moving target. Both AI and my opinion will continue to evolve. I don’t want a HAL 9000 watching my every move or SDIO Star Wars Brilliant Pebbles keeping international peace….no, I’m pretty much happy where we are.