If you said, "A famous slogan from a 1970s-80s Memorex ad campaign that questioned whether a sound was a real performance or a recording, famously featuring jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald breaking a glass with her voice to prove the high fidelity of Memorex cassette tapes," you get 20 bonus points.
We are ass-deep in technology that makes that above statement pale by comparison. Speaking of: AI... Artificial Intelligence. There is nothing "artificial" about it, nor is it 'intelligent"... it takes from the massive amount of information online to create a perception. Much like when Google first came about, and you asked it a question. Taken to the "Nth degree."
Take this image for example...
This person doesn't exist. It is an AI generated image, "assembled" from a set of instructions: "Create a young blonde model, age 20, bob hairdo, freckles, black & white, taken in the 60s, in Paris."
No photographer needed. No stylist. No travel. No film. No carrying and setting up equipment - hell, no equipment. Isn't quite what you had in mind? Modify the instructions and refine the result.
Photographers will cry out: "AI is going to take our jobs!" Not quite accurate... someone who knows how to use AI is going to take your job.
This should be a concern for anyone in the creative arts business: photographers, models, art directors, actors, singers, writers, etc, etc, etc. I gave the warning to professional photographers groups before we retired from the photography business in 2006, that "a change is coming." I was speaking of the business model where photographers sold a finished product: that canvas wall print, all the way down to the wallet size photos that high school seniors exchanged with friends. My take: "The business won't be about selling that product, but rather selling the service of creating the images... give the files to the client, since there will be no way to protect the ownership of that image."
History proved that out: the following year (2007), Apple came out with the iPhone, which changed that entire industry. Grandma didn't need an album of photos of her granddaughter to show her friends - she could just scroll through her phone.
AI takes that even further. Can you believe in what you see in an image? Not any more. With digital imaging, I could insert someone who wasn't there into an image. Want to look 20 pounds thinner? Easy. Smooth out those lines in the forehead or a wrinkle in a dress? No problem. I used to say, "If you can imagine it, we can create it." We are far beyond that now. Is AI imaging perfect? Seems that it isn't great with details like fingers, but all that can be refined. The fact of the matter is: to the average person, it is acceptable. And, believable.
It used to be: a photograph could capture "a moment in time." Now, it can create a moment that never existed. It is a very different world. There are no limits on images that require a "created with AI" disclaimer. "The camera doesn't lie," is no longer a truth.
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