People keep sharing an image of a bird with a drop of water bursting on its head like a crown. It's AI, but people share it in good faith, believing it’s an amazing photo by a human of a real bird in a real moment of time. Meanwhile, humans who have taken amazing photos of real birds captured in real moments of time, like a hummingbird in ballet with a butterfly, get questioned in good faith by people who are tired of being cheated by AI-deceit. The way AI has broken social trust is distressing.
It's not, of course, generative AI that's deceiving people. It's the humans using AI to generate fake images and the humans who pass the fake images off as their own photos who are deceiving other humans.

A few people have questioned whether I am right to say that the image of a drop of water bursting on a bird's head like a crown actually is AI-generated. They think I may be wrong. That it is not faked. That it is real.

If I'm wrong, if it really is an unmanipulated photo by a verified human photographer, please do let me know so that I can correct myself and my toot.

(All this uncertainty is part of the whole problem. We all spend so much human time & energy trying to act in good faith.)

RE: https://eldritch.cafe/@lynatic/116439531277946968

@CiaraNi It is apparently watermarked by the AI that generated it (though I haven't checked this myself). I'd consider that pretty strong proof, since I can't imagine why anyone would add an AI watermark to a real, non-AI picture (but then again, people do lots of things I can't imagine people doing)

https://mstdn.social/@lynatic@eldritch.cafe/116439531501647616

@stveje Oh, so there is an actual AI-watermark. What a vicious circle all of this runs in. And such a terrible waste of all our human time and energy. I'd prefer to look at those real, non-AI pictures too!
@CiaraNi It's so depressing. Worst part is there doesn't seem to be any solution.

@stveje

"Worst part is there doesn't seem to be any solution."

Agreed. It makes it extra exhausting. There's no end in sight.

@CiaraNi
Actually there is.

AI is a tool like others.

Now the AI hype (centered on the USA) is an ugly scam, but luckily it seems to lose a bit steam. Or as I call it the times of free handouts from your drug dealer are coming to an end. Claude code has been dropped from pro, max users suddenly running out of quota. GitHub stopping signups and rumours that they want charge by the token.

Three good times where the bullshit machines were free are coming to an end.
@stveje

@yacc143 @CiaraNi Alas, just because something is no longer free doesn't mean people won't use it, especially people with more money than good sense/scruples. Or that the technology itself just goes away. And all the slop that's already been generated will continue floating around, getting into everything like digital micro plastic and forever chemicals.

Even if the bubble pops tomorrow, we haven't seen the end of this. Not even close.

@stveje @yacc143 Agreed - alas. I think this sounds right.

'All the slop that's already been generated will continue floating around, getting into everything like digital micro plastic and forever chemicals."

True and depressing.