Fake? My Photo Was Called Out For Being AI. Is this the future?

I’m not sure if I’m mad, sad, or if I’m even real.

For the last few months I’ve been on the most incredible photographic journey of my life – out on the road, by myself, creating hundreds of photographs that truly matter to me. I’m journaling. Sketching.

Creating, creating, creating.

And even outside of that, I’ve been churning out professional work that rocks. Photographically speaking, things are pretty good.

So I was excited when I posted this photo (one I dig) to Substack Notes:

I received this comment:

1 - This is a real photo, and it’s barely edited.

2 - The AI police? They’ll be coming for us.

3 - I particularly love how she starts with, "sorry about this." It's like when people say, "I mean no disrespect," right before every word out of their mouth is dripping with total disrespect. What she really meant was, "Sorry, but you’re full of crap and tricking people for likes, comments and follows."

Daniela: I come in peace. I mean no disrespect. I’m sorry about this, but calling out other artists for thinking their work is AI - or Fake - “overly photoshopped”or whatever - is not cool! The dude does not abide!

I shouldn’t have to justify my work (and neither should you) to anyone.

This is the truth. And you can stop reading here. At the end of the day, some random comment doesn’t matter. I can let it go and move on. You can too.

Hell - I’m used to insane, deranged, and crazy comments!

I actually love these comments because it got someone fired up! (I also know it’s not personal, and these people are just sad, angry people lashing out.)

HOWEVER, I feel like I need to prove the photo is real. I think this is a problem every artist is going to face in the future, and it sucks.

So I replied to declare the truth: that my photo is, in fact, a real photograph of a real tree, on a real road, in real Nebraska.

Was I being a jerk? I tried not to be. My first draft of my response was DEFINITELY jerk-like… but I tried to tone it down. Also - I keep saying “I’m not mad” so I’m probably actually pretty mad.

The only problem? Anyone can say anything. I can declare myself to be the “Queen of All Things Born in the Dawn - Bringer of Chaos - Apostle of the Chosen.”

But people can spit noises out of their mouth and that doesn’t matter or make their noises true.

Daniela and the world needs to know the photo is real.

So.. how do I prove it?

How about a screenshot from my Lightroom gallery? That’s what I tried at first:

Okay, fine - this can be faked too, right? I’ll post a closer shot of the edits:

Well… any screenshot is easy to fake, right?

So what do I do? How can I convince the AI cop Daniela… convince the WORLD… that my photo is real?

I just sat there staring at the screen, multiplying the list of existential questions I need to ask myself when I look into the void of my soul.

This is probably AI. No one can get the X100vi.

I don’t know what to say. I’m not sure if there’s a way to prove anything is real anymore on the internet.

Some of you out there might tell me this doesn’t matter. Who cares, Jerred? This is just one comment… let it go.

BUT… IT DOES MATTER!

Maybe I’m realizing, slowly and with rising horror, that there’s nothing we can do. All our human creativity is suspect to being labeled AI, at least online, and that’s a sad fact. I’ve heard AI songs and seen AI video that have tricked me. You’ve probably been tricked too.

Is human creativity even unique? (Think about this - humans learn by other humans, right? Most art is derivative. Original art is often the artist’s ability to make connections others don’t see. AI has/is consuming all of human culture… so it’s ability to make connections will be far more powerful than any human.)

Soon, even the MOST creative work - maybe because of the way it genuinely stands out - will be labeled as AI. (And sadly, that new idea and art will then be consumed by the AI Gods, giving everyone the exciting ability to create that new and exciting art… which means all meaning is lost.)

Soon the internet will mostly be bots anyway, all of them creating photos, videos, etc., like the real thing. We won’t be able to tell the difference.

Let’s keep going down this insane rabbit hole.

We haven’t even asked the REAL question yet…

Is the woman who made that comment fake?

I don’t know. She might not be real. Bots are capable of amazing things.

She might be FAKE NEWS, too. I went her website. It looks legit. But is it?

Is she a Russian hacker trying to make me question my own reality? (Listen to this podcast - it’s so enlightening and scary at the same time).

HOLY CRAP…….. AM I EVEN REAL?

I just realized that, as I was questioning whether Daniela was a real person, I didn’t ask the first real, true question: did someone create me with a prompt? Am I an AI creation?

I’m so sorry to do this to you. But would AI post this as proof of life? Probably not, right? This is a terrible photo that’s scary, so Ai wouldn’t think to post it. Except this paragraph. AI is probably recording it as I write it… and AI will change its future behavior to post weird and unflattering photos to be more believable.

Am I real? Are you? Does it even matter anymore?

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More Macro in the Garden, Regardless of Whether the Garden Actually Exists:

I spent some more time in the garden, so here are a few more garden shots. My main advice for those new to macro photography: keep your shutter speed pretty high, and use single-shot autofocus. Put your autofocus box where you want it - and blast away!

That’s what I did for these shots. All of them taken with the OM-System OM-1 MarkII and either the 90mm macro or the 300mm f/4.

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www.jerredz.com

jerredz@gmail.com