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Hi! I'm Erika. Welcome to Two Mann, Two Sense! (2M2S for short). 2M2S is a musing, where I serve up an assortment of bite-sized tips, quotes, musings, stories, recommendations, and other spicy ruminations about photography, entrepreneurship, creativity, and life.
AI’s Missing Piece
There’s been a lot of chatter the past couple of months about Artificial Intelligence (AI), especially in the world of art and photography. It’s the topic of many conversations in our house. Where is it going? How is it going to change the industry? Who the hell knows! I certainly don’t. It is utterly terrifying to think about. When I look at
the AI art/photos that are being made, it makes me feel obsolete as a photographer. No longer can we rely on the human eye being better than that of a computer’s equivalent. Last year I could potentially make that argument. Today that is no longer true. The phrase, “steal like an artist,” has been taken very literally by AI; sourcing from thousands, if not millions of art pieces and photographs. How can we, as humans, possibly compete with that. In short, we can’t. So why bother trying? Is the time coming to move onto another profession? If a computer can take better astrophotography shots than me, better portraits than me, more beautifully lit landscapes than me, then what’s the point?
If you’re reading this newsletter, you’ve likely seen the AI photo that won a competition in Australia. Don’t worry, the prize was revoked when the “art creator” who made the AI piece came forward. It was a truly stunning non-photograph. If you look closely, you can see some clues that indicate that it was faked, but it would be naive to think that those kinks won’t be worked out in the very near future.
I’ve been thinking about this, off and on, for weeks. Trying to wrap my head around all the uncertainties hurts my small brain. But, I have landed somewhere that has brought comfort. And, this landing spot is not inside my brain. In fact, it has everything to do with what exists outside the brain.
We don’t exist as photographers to make beautiful photos. Although it’s very easy to think that we do, when our whole profession is cradled around the end product we produce.
We exist as photographers to SEE things. We exist to be curious. We exist to notice and we exist to observe. AI can take over everything that we do as photographers. It can mimic the way we see. It can mimic the way we take photos.
It can mimic the focal lengths we use. AI can mimic every single thing about our photos, our craft, and the end results. And if it can’t yet, just wait a few years.
What AI cannot mimic is our process. It cannot mimic the way the warm evening sun feels on my face during a sunset. It cannot mimic the way I notice the water droplets dripping down Timmy's tanned back after an evening swim in the lake. It can’t mimic the goosebumps that I get when I hear the most beautiful song and try to capture that beauty of sound into a soundless photo. It cannot mimic the things that I notice, and how they’re imprinted onto my consciousness forever. In other words, AI can mimic the end result, but not the process. And, being a photographer (whether it remains our profession or not),
or any artist really, is entirely about the process. Would you trade the process for only beautiful photos? Although it's incredibly tempting, I wouldn't. But, I would trade the beautiful photos for the extremely messy process any day.
Love,
Erika
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