25 Comments
Jul 3, 2023Liked by Sara Tasker - Me & Orla

looking through some of these photos where the human isn't real gave me the same feeling the Black Mirror series on Netflix does, a sense that it's a little creepy. I think your original photos win, but it's pretty amazing to see the detail and how really a lot of these could pass as real photos. It definitely gets me thinking about using AI in a positive way and embracing the change that's ahead.

Expand full comment
author

Omg yes! Or like when you try and look at something in a dream and you can’t quite make it out. Horrible uncanny valley vibes.

Expand full comment
Jul 3, 2023Liked by Sara Tasker - Me & Orla

This is where being an artist helps! There is no way AI can replicate my quirky paintings or collages! I’ve tried and it’s not even close. Lots of shady stuff and downright abuse happening with AI photography and video so it’s something that needs very strong regulation around. There are artists whose work is being copied and used to train AI models on so that the art can be accurately plagiarised. Scary stuff.

Expand full comment
author
Jul 3, 2023·edited Jul 3, 2023Author

Yes! For artists in particular there’s some super blatant theft - it’s alarming to see AI generated art that clearly has somebody’s unique signature incorporated but illegible. I think we’re going to have see rapid change and regulation in the coming 12 months.

For writers, too, it’s a big worry. Every turn of phrase, every nuanced sentence is being churned through the system and spat out as original content. I definitely have a lot more to say on the whole topic of AI and creativity. It’s really interesting to play around and see where is humans still have a bit of an edge.

Expand full comment
Jul 3, 2023Liked by Sara Tasker - Me & Orla

Currently a lot of schools have programs to run essays through to test plagiarism, but I wonder if those tools will be able to keep up. I’ve only tried the writing apps that must be quite basic, as they only offer basic boring copy.

Expand full comment
Jul 3, 2023Liked by Sara Tasker - Me & Orla

What a fun and interesting exercise! Fascinating technology and I for one share your fascination with it, as you know! (That's what my Substack and Instagram explorations are all about). I think what is crazy is that these current capabilities reflect this type of AI being available to the public for less than a year. And in the case of Photoshop, just a few short months. Imagining what will be possible in 1, 5, 10 years...is mind boggling! Sci-fi scenarios and capabilities will become reality more and more...such an interesting time - and equally scary. So much potential for good and bad - I do think it's important to highlight the positive uses and to use them responsibly.

Expand full comment
Jul 3, 2023·edited Jul 3, 2023Liked by Sara Tasker - Me & Orla

My husband is a visual artist and has been tinkering with training the tools with just his own work, much of it collage with historical materials, and the results have been fascinating! I think this is really cool to play around with, and I also have that creepy feeling Jodie mentions below, especially with that twisted leg coming out of the bathrub-woah! I am also very much for regulation and not taking from artists work without them being credited or compensated.

If I ever wear a crop top or bike-short-style bottoms, say I don't need actual notebooks or fountain pens, and prefer instant/pod coffee to fresh brewed, you know I've been taken over by a robot as well.

Expand full comment
Jul 3, 2023Liked by Sara Tasker - Me & Orla

This just reinforces my beliefs that AI is creepy as heck, and I could happily see it disappear forever. I really think the people who are hyped about it just genuinely haven't watched enough sci-fi, lol. It never can quite pull of faces or limbs either. The foot is melting into the books, some of the nails on the hands holding flowers and dirt have been replaced by bizarre dirt concavities... the feet in the tub though. Those are truly the stuff of horror roflol.

It all just amplifies how absolutely lovely your photographs are. The work of a true artist shining through, as it should. <3

Expand full comment
author

Believe it or not that was the LEAST scary of all the bath pictures 😂. I need to share some of the outtakes because I low key think I might have a career as an AI Dali based on these results!

I'm honestly relieved that people are saying they'd still choose my photography, because I wasn't expecting it to be such a tight race between the two! You're absolutely right about the weird artefacts and creepy elements, of course - I just suspect most people scrolling through social media wouldn't give them a second glance!

Expand full comment

Oh no! I’m terrified of what the other tub photos must have looked like. 🤣🤣

Expand full comment
Jul 3, 2023Liked by Sara Tasker - Me & Orla

I think your photos win all the time - even on the ones where they are more ‘real’ (ie the woman in barn door). But this could be because we’re seeing them side-by-side with yours. If posted to IG, or anywhere, a website say, I think most people wouldn’t notice the difference. And that’s the scary thing.

There is definitely a lack of the beautiful detail element, but also - what I notice most obviously - is that the photos all look a bit generic. And less an individual style. Which would mean that spaces would become less self-expression and more same-same-same (even more we’re currently seeing on ig). The images are a bit too perfect.

I think even the one with hands with soil, while shown alone online would not make me (or anyone) bat an eye, it still has a look where the dirt is too perfectly arranged. I still like your photo better, and that’s not even taking into account that the composition is better.

Though I do feel scared that the easy access does mean we’ll lose these beautifully composed and authentically ‘self’ images, and we’ll start to become used to this sort of image instead.

Expand full comment
author

I'm glad you think so! I'm still relevant - yay! 😂

I definitely agree re the risk of homogenisation. It's already happening anyway, because of the way algorithms encourage and discourage certain types of content, but AI will be able to apply that on a whole new level. I'm hopeful - naively, perhaps - that we'll retain our love for real photography where it really counts. Kind of like vinyl collectors or coffee lovers - convenience doesn't trump quality when it comes to the things we really love. Here's hoping, anyway!

Expand full comment
founding

Very very interesting thought exercise. I prefer your original every time -but I think it’s because you can’t sway me from my love & of an artist’s visual style & aesthetic. My love/ taste is eternal! 🤣♥️

Expand full comment
Jul 3, 2023Liked by Sara Tasker - Me & Orla

Ai is a bit too tidy for my taste.

I'm for the surreal stuff, though!

Expand full comment
Jul 3, 2023Liked by Sara Tasker - Me & Orla

Adobe is only using their own content which is provably why the AI couldn’t find your specific car type 😅 —my husband plays D&D and he’s been creating the most magical imagery just to play, by now I thought I knew how to spot AI generated photos but I guess I didn’t! Some of your pics are insane 🤯

Expand full comment
author

Ahh that makes so much sense! And explains why it also didn't know "Pedro Pascal" when I put him in, either 😂. That also makes it a little more ethical, I think? Not just stealing every image off the web. It's so perfect for fantasy and D&D type stuff! Also for worldbuilding in general - even for writers, as a visual aid. So much potential!

Expand full comment
Jul 3, 2023Liked by Sara Tasker - Me & Orla

Oh, this is brilliant. I love to see the quirky, innovative ways that AI is being used, rather than folks running around worrying that it's going to kill us all. I mean, it might ... but I figure there's not a lot I can do about that so I might as well find out what it can do for me. I'm intrigued to see what it can do with knitting photos - but the ones I've seen so far it tends to do a weird, amorphous blob of knit/crochet mixed together. And if I ever see that Gotham Grannies horror (AI images of old ladies in batman capes) it will be too soon.

Expand full comment

Ah this is fascinating!!! At first glance the images are incredibly real, and then as I looked at them longer and in more detail you start to see the little things that aren't quite right. Really interesting!

Expand full comment
Jul 4, 2023Liked by Sara Tasker - Me & Orla

Really interesting! The bath 🛀 😱

Expand full comment
Jul 4, 2023Liked by Sara Tasker - Me & Orla

Such an interesting post! It's a little crazy how close AI got to some of your photos!

Expand full comment
author

It's wild how much it can do with so little effort required. Imagine where this tech will be in another year or 2!

Expand full comment
Jul 3, 2023Liked by Sara Tasker - Me & Orla

Bonkers! I honestly think it just amplifies how beautiful your photos are. ✨💕

I LOVE chat GDP for all sorts but I can’t get board with ai for art.

My husband had been using it to generate photos for some of his articles - these two photos on pet chickens are just wild! Especially the second - I think AI is so much better with words although it’s super impressive what you’ve managed to steer it to create here - the possibilities are incredible really!

https://open.substack.com/pub/manosvenus/p/what-came-first-the-chicken-or-the?r=506nf&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post

Expand full comment
Jul 3, 2023Liked by Sara Tasker - Me & Orla

This is brilliant! The bath one is so creepy! I might try to recreate my illustrations. That’d be fun!

Expand full comment
author

ohh that would be really fun! You can choose different styles other than photography too, eg graphic or art. If you used something like Midjourney you could probably get it to reference your work online, too, and have it actually try and draw like you! 😱

Expand full comment
Jul 4, 2023Liked by Sara Tasker - Me & Orla

Exactly, write and illustrate a picture book in the style of Helen Stephens 😂

Expand full comment