Comment by Stratoscope
3 hours ago
> Unfortunately, this might become something like the em-dash—where artists start tweaking their work to look less like the AI’s that are copying them.
So true! (And yes—I see what you did there.)
It's even happening to photos now. A few months ago I posted a "Bot alert!" on Nextdoor warning people about the latest scambot.
One person replied "It's funny to see a bot reporting a bot."
I asked how they discovered I was a bot.
"It's your profile photo. The facial expression is too good, and the smoothness of the background is too perfect. Has to be AI."
For the curious, it's the same photo as on my LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelgeary/
What they didn't know was how I took that selfie. I set up my Micro Four Thirds camera on a tripod in the front yard, with the world's best portrait lens: the Olympus 75mm f/1.8. I stood some 10-15 feet from it (this lens is equivalent to a 150mm lens on a full frame camera, i.e. a moderate telephoto) and used the remote control to take a few dozen shots as I let my face relax into various expressions.
I picked out 4-5 favorites and asked a friend about them. She said "This one. It has gravitas."
I don't even think it's that great a photo. But I suppose the "gravitas" makes it look like AI.
For a photo that really shows off what that 75mm lens can do, check out this one of our late dog Brownie, titled Pumpkin Brownie:
Enjoyed your photos, thanks for explaining about how they were made.