I've mentioned a number of times, it can be a challenge trying to look for awesome pictures for you all every day due to unlabeled, uncited, or just falsely presented pictures.
This one was pretty egregious today. Nothing says woodland camouflage like an owl looking like a toddler sized piece of candy corn!
Now, while there are no challenges for me here determining if this is real, I'm sure countless other people just scrolling will have no clue. To make it worse, I checked out the page's feed, and they have some really good photos that I have shared with you guys, watermarks and/or credit to the photographer removed of course, as well as some things that look cool, but even have me stumped if they're real.
Is this a nice, albeit highly processed photo of a Bare Shanked Screech, or is it fake? Colors are close but exaggerated, no photographer credit for me to follow up on, so I would pass on sharing this with you guys.
I get recommended dozens of these image groups every time I look on social media for pictures and stories. I'm only subbed to real rescues and wildlife photography groups, but I keep getting recommended anything with an owl shaped image.
Let me know your thoughts on this. Should there be some type of disclaimer on AI images? Do we let people figure it out on their own? How do we keep aggregaters from passing off the images as real? I feel these are questions we should be asking right now.
Would you guys want to have maybe one monthly post of bizarre images I've found during the previous month, or do you get enough of this stuff already on your own you don't want to see any more? I'm forced to look at them, so if you're interested in a Best of the Worst kind of thing, let me know.
I had a similar experience recently while researching for !nudibranchs@mander.xyz....I found these gems pretending to be nudibranchs
In fact the whole site has some wonderful ai abonimations masquerading as real animals....
....This is a 'mud skipper'
Bats!
axolotls
It's weird out there!
Oh wow! I didn't know what a nudibranch was, but they are pretty nifty. I subbed to your comm. Even without know what they were though, that first one is pretty sus.
Those last three though I feel like the computer wasn't even trying! π
Those last 3 are kinda the thing that has me scared, where they're presented on a legit looking website mixed in with real information. It really can poison the well of information out there. Yikes!
I wish I would have saved the one I saw earlier today. It looked to be a large Tawny Owl with the eyes and beak of something like a tiny Saw Whet, giving it this huge forehead with stretched out brow patches. Totally bizarre.
I completely agree with this, I'm not against ai art (I've had a mini dabble to 'create' something, it's fun! and from a science perspective a photo realistic dinosaur created using up to date research can help present information and capture an audience) however, it does need to be labelled as such when depicting actual living things today
Also, the text on this website also reads like ai mind babble with lots of 'flowery' phrasing and repetition, I've no idea if it is ai generated but even my attempts at writing read better (I hope)
The 'authors' are also suss- '.....Sophia has a deep love for furry friends, from the tiny shrew to the giant elephant. She spends her days studying how these incredible creatures live, play, and interact with their environment. With a heart full of curiosity and compassion, Sophia is dedicated to protecting mammals and their habitats'
This is 'Sophia'
Quite fascinating in a horrendous way, I genuinely hope this isn't the future of the internet
If it turns out I'm wrong about any of the above I will happily edit my comment (and include an apology)....I doubt that will be happening though....
It's definitely got its tentacles in many places already. I've heard of AI with and illustrated books on Amazon, and I see many reviews and comparisons when looking at music gear written by a language model. If there's a way to make quick money, there will always be people that will do it regardless of its effects.
Like you, I agree there are many places it can be fun or beneficial, and I enjoy making some fun AI pics, but I wouldn't think of passing them off as my own work or as something real.
Copiers and printers have special hidden identifiers built in, so perhaps someday AI content will be the same, but until then, we'll just have to keep being diligent.