In the past five years, “artificial intelligence” has soared in popularity. It has gone from a work of science fiction to an infinitely popular and highly controversial piece of technology.

Ai has been treated as a tool by many people. However, it has also been used by some to mislead. 

There is a small but impactful group of people who generate AI pictures and videos, but don’t identify them as such. In fact, many of them directly deny any of these accusations and claim it as their original work. While this may seem harmless or obvious, this inflates expectations for photographers. People’s opinions change to the point where nothing is impressive, and anything that is, will be falsely called AI.

When I talked to some students at Farmington High School, every one of them had used AI at some point. And each of them that had access to social media, had seen a video they did not initially recognize as AI, but later learned from comments or a friend that it wasn’t authentic.

So, if AI is so convincing and no one can even tell the difference, why would anyone still participate in photography? People will still take pictures because it’s an art form and they love it.

In the next few years, as AI continues to grow, we may even see a change in the communities of photographers and videographers. We may see a more supportive community because the people making media will be doing it because they care. If they didn’t care, they could just have a computer make it.