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Comment by spion

3 years ago

I like the story, but I think people will notice pretty quickly as almost everyone reviews their photos right after taking them (so they can compare them with what they see in reality)

True, its just a fun story. This reddit post makes it clear, though, that while people will review the images carefully, they may still not be able to accurately determine differences.

Just take the story above with one more minor step: You snap a pic of the park, briefly glanced at it to make sure it wasn't blurry (which the AI would have fixed anyway) or had an ugly glare (it did, the AI fixed it) or worse a finger (the AI also fixed that).

You're satisfied the image was captured faithfully and you did a good job holding your plastic rectangle to capture unseen sights. You didn't look closely enough to notice all the faked details, because they were so good.

This fake moon super enhance? It already proves people will fall for it. I could easily see people not realizing AI turned the flowers in the picture more red, or the grass just a little too green, etc.

  • Iphones already HDR the crap out of their photos. Saturation put to max levels for that pop, colors looking only vaguely like they really did.

    The contrast between what my camera raw with a stock profile puts out and what my iphone puts out is striking, and it's very clear the iphone's version of reality is optimized for Instagram and maximum color punch at the cost of looking real.

    Thing is, that's what people like. So that's what we're getting.

    Reality be damned.

    • The iPhone camera is tuned for realistic color unless you've left the style setting on Vibrant. I guess it doesn't have an "even less vibrant" style.

      It does have higher than real contrast, but that's because images are 8-bit - if you don't try to fill the range, it's going to look low quality with banding artifacts.

      2 replies →

  • People will quickly see that their faces don’t look right. That’s usually the first thing they look at.

    • Faces are definitely harder.

      The story has to get stretched a lot to imagine a total dystopia, but its possible.

      People like digital mirrors for all their benefits: lighter, more features, music and weather all on one "mirror". You can have voice chats, see how you might look with various makeup/styles/haircuts. This digital mirror gets so popular, and (undermining myself here a bit) high enough quality, that people want these new cool wall screens instead.

      And you betcha, AI is of course going to be added. Take insta pics without needing to hold a phone, then apply filters all in one with your voice! Some people take dozens of photos, forgetting briefly how they look.

      Now, people are used to every day seeing themselves in the digital mirror with minor touchups for how they would look if they used some sponsored makeup. They used to do it daily so it would match, but kept forgetting as it always showed the improved version (with a small icon saying, you are 40% matched to the predicted image!).

      Some 20-something walking around in Chicago passes The Bean, and realizes they don't look quite the same as they did in their home mirror. They take out their phone to take a pic of themselves, which is of course synced to their mirror with the same "makeup enhancement suggestions", still warning them it doesn't match.

      They put away their phone, confident in the knowledge The Bean is just a dirty and distorted mirror, which is why they don't look as good. The camera has always been trustworthy. Why doubt it today?

      (again, fun story, I don't think this is likely. Just plausible for some people).

    • Instagram photos of faces already don’t look right. They are horribly smoothed out and glowing. And people seem to like it.

    • But they'll forgive it if they look better than what they've always thought. Just a bit better, not overdone. There's a sweet spot.

    • What that huh? People are specifically using filters to alter their, wait for it..faces!

Doubtful - they’ll just think they’ve taken a great photo because they’re a skilled photographer, and they won’t be shy about telling you so.

I guess I havent noticed that people do that for things other than selfies.

I generally just burst-mode-scan an area or scenery location and later that night, or when I add to Strava or wherever, I have an old school contact sheet (but with 60-80 images per thing) to look though. Then narrow it down to 5-10, pick the one or two I like best and discard the rest.