Will AI Change Our Memories?
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- čas přidán 28. 05. 2024
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The Nerdwriter is a series of video essays about art, culture, politics, philosophy and more. - Zábava
“The late Thanos” is a line I didn’t expect in a Nerdwriter video
I kind of broke me out of the video. I just started laughing and had to pause to get back into the mood of the video.
It kinda fits with the theme of the video, treating thanos as if he was real
As a student of history, I find this prospect objectively horrifying. So many instances of unwarranted validation and misinformation will become more commonplace.
Pfff, u will have tools to do that. ;)
It really seems like a Right Wing politician's dream.
Right Wing politics is built on unifying people over marginalized hatred through lies and the blatant refusal to acknowledge facts.
With what AI seems capable of doing, it seems like it's going to be easier than ever for horrible people like that to stay in power by rewriting false narratives into perceived truth.
Let's turn pics of the Jan. 6 fiasco into Tuck C's vision of his "peaceful protest"
Yeah I thought this video was going to be more of a 1984 kinda thing
I mean, wasn't this already the place before photos, where people could paint whatever they wanted, write whatever they wanted and distort the truth?
For me personally, this is another man made horrors beyond comprehension added to the list I have seen grow in my life time. And as someone who works in tech and studies ComSci, the acceleration is what gets me. I remember taking a course in AI 5 years ago; many of the thing we're actively discussing right now were mostly theoretical questions back then, ethics experiments. And most people never paid much attention to us.
As someone that studied AI safety, I feel as validated as the Y2K alarmist I was back then. It must be the logical thinking that we look forward to the outputs of current inputs.
Phenomenologically speaking all memories are distorted. This will just serve to reinforce our existing biases and predispositions.
more personalized than distorted
Somebody finally got to use the word 'phenomenologically'
And if there's anything that really doesn't need any more reinforcements, it's our existing biases and predispositions.
Vinyl, film, analog synths, old land cruisers, tubes and tape…
AI can and probably will get to the point of populating every medium, every screen, every speaker membrane, every 0, every 1. Don’t stop making human art, don’t substitute, don’t stop working with your hands, it doesn’t matter if with a mouse or a brush, with a pencil or a laser, point, drill, write, carve, paint, click, record, draw… climb the hill, stop to rest and keep going, there will come a time where people will sail back, to the coast of “flawed”, bona fide, time consuming, wabi sabi art, but even if they don’t, the difference will always make both the maker and the beholder, happier.
We can't put the genie back in the bottle, but we CAN and SHOULD set the social contract *against* the misuse and over reliance on AI. Not to say it should never be used, but to be used responsibly. Which means developing better ways of checking for AI usage in creative proprieties and regulations in how massive corporations can use them.
eventually nobody will care though
Damn straight. Progress and change will happen, but we don't have to accept it as an all or nothing proposition.
I disagree entirely, the entire purpose of work is to occupy the mind, as we venture into the future, a mind unoccupied atrophies, AI is the very death of the mind. Sure, is also true that now things are easier to make, there is a thing that you're supposed to reach in any task, a sense of zen. This sense will cease.
I suppose it's not that bad, this is the death of value, but not the death of purpose.
@@Khwerz I pretty much agree with all of this, but I would argue - under Capitalism if our already undervalued labor plummets to next to zero value, will we be able to *afford* purpose? Or will the megacorps push is into further and further survivalism? There is already a dirth of opportunity for meaningful connection and work as a direct result of wage slavery
In a world this chaotic, this would NEVER happen. We can develop ways to live with it, best we can do
I don’t know why but this video really shook me to my soul. Of course I knew about all of these technologies but just associating them with memory reminded me how fragile and flawed memory is. One of the reasons I love photography is because it’s a way to immortalize oneself. After it’s all said and done the only thing most of us will leave behind is photographs and memories. And now even that is called in to question. Makes me feel incredibly sad.
Memories and photography have never been accurate representations so this is not a new thing. Almost everything that is published is photoshopped and a lot is taken out of context. I mean, it's still somewhat sad but it's not like this is caused by the advent of AI imagery. The way I see it, AI is a representation of imagination, not of reality. So it really is another tool in the toolbox which is amazing. The only reason it might be a sad thing is because people are disingenuous about it being edited, not because of the edits themselves.
There is a story in Ted Chiang's book Exhalation about the hypothetical existence of a device which records our whole lives and deals with how the access to such bast tracking would affect our memories perception. It is much more than that, utterly reccomended. Ted Chiang's is a superb science fiction writter, known for the story of your life on which Arrival film is based.
“The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling”
It’s available in archived form online. And I agree-Ted Chiang is a superb science fiction writer. I'm not even keen on science fiction but I love his stuff!
Thank you so much; I came to comment the same thing!
Polaroids will be getting even more popular. And all physical media will become more common place. I think a physical object (such as a book :)) is more calming than anything digital can.
You say this, but we said the same about streaming.
People said streaming would lead to censorship and directors like George Lucas completely killing their old cuts
Absolutely true. Time is a circle. We invented amazing machines so we wouldn’t have to use pen and paper-now that AI makes it so easy to cheat, schools will revert back to pen and paper in the classroom. We invented amazing machines so we wouldn’t have to go to the theater; we went so far as to create VR so we could be whatever we want wherever and whenever we want-but as digital content becomes malleable, our capacity to truly connect with and believe what we see is dwindling. I think live theatre and all in-person events will grow in popularity in the coming years as people long for experiences *they know* are real. Frank Herbert knew what he was talking about.
Unfortunately, the trends suggest otherwise. Sure we've seen an upsurge in sales of vinyl and 35mm film but the overwhelming treads have been towards convenience. AI tools such as those by Google and Adobe that were talked about are super convenient for photographers like myself who aren't wizards at retouching, so could save us money if the commission we're hired to do that doesn't require super accurate that a professional retoucher can do. Think about the transition between phones such as the classic blackberry or nokia bricks when the original iphone came out. The obvious change in convenience and added utility that it brought will be applied in a similar trajectory here. Hell for the everyday person, these tools are only going to become easier to learn and more prominent. The potential ramifications for serious misinformation by these tools is potentially limitless
Negatives will be the more trusted image
Just wait for memory augmentation...
Yeah, this is a nightmare technology. The harder it becomes to verify the veracity of photographs and what they contain, the harder it becomes to reconstruct the past (or, for that matter, the present - misinformation is a BIG issue of generative content.)
Maybe online pictures and videos will have a blockchain verified tag to show it’s been AI altered
The more I hear about AI and its role in the arts the less excited I am about it for that specific purpose.
AI is just codes with a set of rules formulated to answer or predict a certain input.
If you think this video is possible.
You need to stop watching/reading fiction.
People with background in programming are laughing at normal people thinking this is the second coming of Jesus.
I am terrified by AI. I think its potential for evil is much greater than its potential for good.
all the technology invented in human history can do great damage to our lives, however they're neutral in essence. The essence of the technique, that has a greater potential for evil than for good, therefore all the technolgy invented since modernity
I think we should be terrified of humans. AI does not have intentions or plans. It's the tool of Machine Men with Machine Minds (as Chaplin said).
Go hide somewhere
Can relate. Not even nukes scare me that much.
About the "Here's a photo my wife took of our vacation with a dog at the house", when you kept retracting more and more "there was no house" "oh we don't have a dog", I was expecting it to end in "And I don't have a wife" lol
Omg the reference editing/ai thing is wild
As a professional photographer, this one is significant for me. I agree with photography is a representation. Even though I tend to be mostly documentary in style while photographing weddings for example, I know as you mentioned that where I choose to frame or crop my images for example will somehow influence people's memories of the event. I just think this new AI power for editing will make anyone an impromptu photo editor and we will have to keep that in mind when we are naturally led to believe what we see in photographs.
I'm so grateful for your thoughtful essays on AI- not alarmist or jubilatory but deep and reflective on its impact and the changes it will bring.
I think that's why traveling is so important. Seeing the world with your own eyes instead of through a cropped/framed picture.
This makes me want to capture everything on actual film so its more tangible, more solid, and fixed and can't be changed as easily.
I'm curious to know how you settled on that specific sound effect to represent the sound of 'erasing'.
isn't it from the game "ingress"?
@@acagnoprod I don't recall that exact sound, at least not in early Ingress.
@@dryued6874 I think it was the second sound it did as soon as the app finished loading. I played in 2016-2017
It's the sound it makes confirming payment on pron hnb. The man likes to indulge.
It's the sound of his money erasing.
"In using them, countless tiny truths will be lost forever."
Every time I use Magic Eraser I'm torn between remembering a lie about that day at the beach vs the objectively more picturesque photograph.
This is an excellent and thoughtful video. Thank you so much.
Which one do you choose?
@@TheMPExperience I sparingly use the eraser, maybe if there's a pilon or garbage I could have just moved before taking the picture. Otherwise, I find that remembering the crowds is part of honestly remembering the entire experience.
I cannot wait to buy the paperback version of this book! I've been a fan of your CZcams channel since escaping my studies in school back in 2014. Excellent take on AI and photography-as a filmmaker and a film photographer, it's interesting, yet equal parts terrifying to see what or 'where' the future lies with the 'art' of photography. Thanks for sharing so many interesting insights over the years!
I find it so incredible to be immersed in another place with you! Looking forward to more!
Photos have always possessed that double edged sword quality -- they can show or reveal a more unvarnished reality or truth, or they can conceal and mislead. It could be as simple as smiling for that family photo while just moments before you were ready to commit harm to each other. No doubt these AI tools do is make that distortion much more readily available and easy to use, and even beyond the more obvious nefarious purposes (to lie, cheat, steal, foment hatred, etc) I am also concerned for the temptation to forever try to 'perfect-ize' our lives. We see it already with social media, with the curated expression of who we are and the forever presentation of a facade, rather than being authentic, leading to greater shame and shallower connections. In addition, it invades our ability to be present, with moments forever lost under the thoughts of "how can I Instagram this for maximum effect?" (Even the example shown in this video of the newly engaged couple, whose moment of joy might well have been dampened by making sure they make that perfect social media post for all those clicks and likes.) Being able to be with ourselves, being able to dance in the messiness of life, and embracing all of our experiences is crucial to being well adjusted, as well as to having a great experience of being alive. If we let AI encourage, or worse, dictate, these deleterious behaviors then we will be doing a great disservice to ourselves and all those around us. Thank you for the video!
I noticed the phrase ‘Your memories…how you want to remember them’ disappear from Google’s advertising when that run started
Creeped me out
Photos are such an interesting thing from a historical perspective. A small blip in our history where things mostly were what you saw. Meanwhile before that you had writers that could distort history with a stroke of a pen, or painters and sculptors that could do the same with their tools. Even with photos you could alter some of the surrounding to stage the photo or use some kind of other tricks to warp reality like weird exposures.
But yeah, as someone that loves to preserve things unaltered, it's a bit frightening how easy would it be to mess with people...
This is crazy because I feel like memorie is the only thing that we really got. Memory Is how we will remember our lives so its crazy that the only thing that really "makes" us can be altern ou modify
This brings us to the question, what is reality? Ancient sages say, what we perceive and believe being our everyday reality is actually Maya, an illusion. AI will just add extra layers to that illusion.
If you want to find Truth, or Reality, the only place to look for it is inside yourself, beyond flawed memories and limited thoughts, where the Consciousness is, empty and full, containing everything, nothing missing.
3:29 Good point. Manipulating photos, adding or removing parts of the image etc., has been possible for almost decades with software. But it has never been this fast and accessible and always required skills to do it.
I appreciate how concise this was. Others would take 30 minutes and use 10 times as many words without making a coherent point… or even editing out their flubs. LIKE!
its great to see you back man. The most intelligent and inspired essays I have ever seen.
Wrote my dissertation on this exact thesis a few years ago. The photoseccesionists made the same argument in the 1910s before Benjamin, Kraucaur, Sontag, or Proust
awesome exploration of the theme
stellar short video highlighting the very essence of the change that is about to come, respect!
Please make more videos like this!
“In using them, countless tiny truths will be lost forever.”
No, they’re won’t be, at least not necessarily. You _still_ have that original image of you on the path with the different colored boots and without Titus and the stone cottage. It’s up to whoever is altering the image which image is discarded, if any, and which is retained-and people might enjoy seeing the “reality”-and as Susan Sontag recognized, a reality that is “interpreted,” or, perhaps, constructed-and the fantasy juxtaposed.
Another amazing piece as always, thanks!
I feel like these AI tools, being presented so casually like that photo editor, don't make us think if we actually need them. "You want a cool picture? Use this AI", but how about, instead, we learn to frame a picture, learn by trial and error how to get what we want. I know it takes time, but you eventually get some skill, even if it's self-taught, the self improvement is part of the enjoyment, and you could even decide to become a photographer if you like it so much. But if we leave it all to a magic AI, we get the picture, but nothing else. Same with image/music/text generators. Empty products, no craft behind it.
I get what you are saying but I disagree. Taking a photograph and prompting an AI image are two completely different things. And they both take time to learn. Sure AI is easier in some ways but you could say the same about digital photography vs analog photography. Or photography vs painting. And all of these mediums are valid within their own right.
You ask the question rather we really need AI. I would say yes, because it let's you create images you otherwise couldn't. And it isn't as easy as a lot of people seem to think. I mean sure, it might be, depending on what you are after, but so is photography. Take your smartphone out of your pocket and press a button. See? Really easy! AI is the same, type some words and get a result, done! But if you want to visualize a specific idea from your imagination you will have to do a lot of learning, trial & error and, yes, honing your craft.
And although I do agree that crafting something with your own two hands adds a layer of depth, AI surely isn't as empty as you seem to suggest. People often seem to ignore the human element when it comes to AI. I've been drawing, designing, doing photography,... my whole life and I think AI is an amazing tool. Sure, it's not perfect and it might pose some risks and drawbacks but AI is purely a mirror of the human condition so if there is anyone to blame for those we have to blame ourselves.
@Djoarhetvdb You are mostly right. AI can be a valuable tool, but you can only say that because you know how it's to make art without it. But think about the future, people born in a world where you can generate anything with a few prompts. What would happen to the craft of drawing, painting, taking photographs? Or making music, or animating? At least by using my smartphone, I still have to frame the picture, decide if I want a vertical or horizontal shot, I still have to worry about the light and composition of the shot. But the issue now is that AI may eliminate those small processes that make our art personal.
And if there's someone (or something) to blame here, it's capitalism. Let's be real, "make more with less", "cheap and quick" that's what this AI thing is in the end.
I love Susan Sontag's interpretation of photography. The idea that photos are just interpretations of reality just like paintings and drawings. Photos are mere frames, pieces of a whole, a moment out of time. So much can be said about a photo by what's not in it.
We're already in an age of rampant misinformation and hyperreality, and all these tech bros are really going "haha but what if we make it even worse?"
I don't think it's just AI. Churchill said "history is written by the victors." We've been crafting how future generations see us since we learned to read and write. Now we can do it with the help of computers and tech.
Maybe some sort of picture format with an embedded "checksum" could be used to establish a picture wasn't altered? Maybe tied to some hardware if needed?
We could also pass legislation so that every AI product needs to have a digital footprint that confirms it is AI, which model created it etc.
@@tvsonicserbia5140 Yeah, that could help, but I feel like eventually there will be good enough open source models which could be changed to get rid of that.
The legislation would still act as a deterrent (like, the penalty for doing so would be more severe), but that might not be enough in some cases. So maybe a combination of both would help
I have the hardback of your book. I don't like cover jackets. There is a timelessness to a plain cover. So your book cover is a lovely shade of blue and feels great in my hands.
But I think the point about 'traditional' photos also being a distortion of reality is a bit different, or on a much smaller and more innocent scale. At least what's in the frame itself *is* a slice of reality and everybody knows that. It's implied that even a real photo might misrepresent or not show the context of the situation but most people are well aware of that.
But with AI editing, it's so much different. Even the most basic photo - a kid smiling, a landscape, a family photo - might be edited and we won't know. Nobody is necessarily expecting that you might have change the kids smile or change the sky in a landscape photo. These are subtle things that are distorting reality in a much scarier way, even if they seem mundane.
Suddenly, I see real purpose in the concept of Time Lord art as it was imagined in the sci-fi show Doctor Who. A frozen slice in time presented as an almost tangible, three-dimensional art piece. This is what photographs wish they could be if they wanted to represent reality truthfully.
I dated a photographer who would alter colors in photoshop. Common of course but he justified it out loud as being because the water didn't look as blue as he remembered. There's two things there and I feel like your essay touches on one. Of course his memory might be different from reality. But photos are also different from reality-- and not just in the "they're trying to communicate a thing" way. A camera will not capture how things look because your eyes do not work exactly like a camera. He may remember the water bluer than it was, Or he might remember it accurately, but a camera can't capture it. A frame rate or aperture or inability to dynamically focus can totally change how things literally look (this is why as an astronomer I find people getting miffed when images are enhanced a bit funny... we are always just taking reads of photons in a passband and assigning an approximate color to that). In between there's also just that you can't fully capture the feeling in a photo. An artist might try to get something across, but I can bet you don't go to the same place I go to emotionally when I see certain photos or hear certain songs.
tl;rd... this just feels like photoshop. I don't know that it's much more deep than that personally.
With the colors, contrast there is room for interpretation because everything is interpretation. If you take a different camera or film it will look a little bit different, doesn't really matter if its before or after shooting a photo. A photo is a record of some physical properties, but it has its own burden of interpretation. But that's not the same as chaning the entire subject of the photo with AI.
scary concept for sure. excited to check out your book when the paperback comes out though!
It's not just photos that are a mere representation of reality. Human memory is too.
Our memories are not like movies and photos stored on a hard drive, played back each time in an unchanging form.
They resemble more the recipe for a cake, not the cake itself. The brain uses this recipe to recreate memories as best it can, but not always in the same way.
Human memories change over time. They modify. Something we remember today in one way, we will remember in another after time passes and after we gain new experiences. And we will be 100% convinced that this is how it was and not otherwise.
In this context, new AI tools are making our photos closer to our memory than ever before. They are not the recordings of facts, but their creation.
yea thats kinda why people take photots because its an ACTUAL representation of reality. this widespread acceptance of deligitimizing photos has an agenda and you're eating it up
Evan, buddy. We gotta chat. You often blow my mind in subtle ways with your videos and this one is no exception. What IS an exception is the intensity and depth that this video imprints on my psyche. You bring up a very important topic that needs to be had among the scientific, philosophical, and artistic community when it comes to AI. Memory, identity and validation (in all its technical definitions) are currently tested in a multitude of ways. AI is forcing us to confront those changes faster. In my mind, the Philosophy community gets hit first (but no one seems to care because many things are thought experiments), then maybe artistic (but many don't care because there's a lack of appreciation of Art and its many forms), and finally scientific (even though the science was at play long before someone thought about whether it SHOULD do these things). I'm going to have to mull over this over the next few months or years lol.
Side note; I'm so freaking impressed with your video editing skills that it hurts me lol. I'm trying to start my own channel and learning everything on my own and seeing the result of your videos makes me feel like I'll never get there; it's all encouragement though lol. I do hope to see more and more of your content but I know you're a busy guy. I have a hundred questions about your editing but I just want to say; good freaking job. Love it!
I never quite liked the hype around releasing photos "unedited". The implication transported in that label is that it's the most accurate representation of reality, but that completely ignores the fact that every art medium inherently distorts whatever it's presenting, and it also very much forgets that our experience of reality is always accompanied by our state of mind, our emotions. In photography, the attempt is often to show to others what your eyes saw at some point, but not editing a photo doesn't (often) do that. In my photography, where I simply try to make photos look nice without ever inserting deeper meaning into it, I edit every single shot, but not in order to (positively) distort an impression I had in a moment, but actually in order to _more accurately_ get my complete sensation across. A sunset with increased contrasts and saturation feels much more like how I felt watching it, and an alleyway with shifted black levels gets across its creepiness much better than a sterile photo of how much actually was visible.
"Memory is what we want it to be"... until you run into someone from your past who calls you on all your shit
Then still is that someone referring to his perspective of the past and talking to you in the now, which is also a different person if you will. Time passes like clouds.
@@Toby_Utobya people change... but also some people just lie to themselves about having changed. It helps to recognize the difference.
Editing a photo like this turns it into an illustration.
I’m definitely getting that book.
I spent a couple of hours thinking about this video.
It’s very beautiful & interesting.
These were some of the lines I spent time thinking about the most and/or saved to revisit later (apologies if there's typos/errors):
“Of course, we want you to do more … ”
“You can do much more with [this product].”
“What is a photo?” -Brownlee
“Something universally true about human memory - it’s inaccurate.”
“It is always necessarily the case that memory distorts the past according to the needs of the present.”
“Human beings are constantly making a narrative of their lives, writing and rewriting the story of who they are. Memories are cherry picked and altered to fit the current narrative. Remembering a cloudy day as sunny is the least of the changes we make.”
“The day *was* cloudy.”
“There is a truth about the past that exists independently of our recollection of it.”
“Part of photography’s function is to preserve that truth, to put down anchors in the past and prevent our minds from drifting too far from what actually happened.”
“Maybe it finally forces us to face another truth: that photographs were never really accurate representations of the world to begin with.”
“Although there is a sense in which the camera does indeed capture reality … photographs are as much an interpretation of the world as painting and drawings are.” -Sontag
“The act of choosing where the frame ends is an act of distortion.”
“Does this mean there is nothing real about photos? Of course not. But - like memories - photos are selective.”
“Memories select for moments of heightened emotion; photos select for what is photogenic - what you determined was worth seeing at the time. Neither give the whole picture.”
“The past is always only what we want it to be.”
And these were some things/questions I found myself wondering as a result:
*What is most relevant here?
*Logically, isn't there a logical priority of relevance that we 'need' to talk about 'more'? (an ethical science of primary selection?)
*What should I be searching for/focusing on/selecting for?
*What would a ‘Good’ comment be?
*What matters most to Evan/Others here? (Is there anything i can say that someone else hasn’t already said in the comments; or that other philosophers/writers haven't said?)
*Is Deckard drinking significant? (Blade Runner seems to be revisited in a number of Nerdwriter videos)
*We ‘want’ to have ‘more’ and ‘better’ products?? (and more and more powerful tech will keep giving it to us??)
… what does that even mean / where is this taking us??? (somewhere 'good'?)
*There seems to be a correlation between Deckard at the start and the girl in the window on the video thumbnail - but I’m not sure what the correlation is.
*Is there something i should say that i’m missing or other viewers might be missing?
*I’m still not sure what to focus on -
*If i comment, will it matter? (this seems to be a recurring thought to me)
*What i can think to say is i like Blade Runner & i love so many of these ideas and the way they're phrased and delivered and all put together with the music and editing -- there just seems like something very beautiful & interesting about this video that's worth rewatching.
*Possibly unrelated or possibly relevant -- I rewatch your sandman video on a regular basis and i just find something deeply comforting about it, sort of like the atmosphere of Blade Runner, i guess, but i don't know how to put it into words.
*All in all, I genuinely don’t know what i’m trying to say here, and trying to put it into words makes me realise how much of an idiot i sound like and i could probably/definitely never make videos of this quality in a zillion years - so just thank you, i love these videos and they mean a lot to me and i think to a lot of other people maybe as well. But not too much. Just the appropriate amount of love. I wouldn't want to sound like a rambling crazy person -- even though i definitely am one -- but i get the feeling you dont mind too much and that gives me hope on the darker days. Thank you again.
Evan, you may really enjoy "The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling" by Ted Chiang, the author of Arrival. It explores this topic in a few very interesting ways. And while you're reading that, the book version of Arrival (Stories of Your Life and Others) is amazing too.
I'm surprised you didn't quote Picasso:
"We all know that Art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize truth, at least the truth that is given us to understand. The artist must know the manner whereby to convince others of the truthfulness of his lies. If he only shows in his work that he has searched, and re-searched, for the way to put over lies, he would never accomplish anything."
This is why photo albums are so important.
Great video 👏👏👏
I remember a year or so ago when I first saw that Google Pixel advert, that advertised ai alterations to photos, with the tagline "Now your photos can be perfect, just like your memories."
I felt like I was the only one who was completely horrified at that line.
I had to keep scrubbing back and forth over the "fake cottage" part (0:50 to 1:19) because I was shocked at how much of that looked real without really looking too deep into the originally shown altered photo.
reminds me of "La invención de Morel" (Morel's invention) by Bioy Casares.
dude, GREAT video!!
The alteration of official photos was done extensively during the history of the Soviet Union.
And for those who remember Orwell’s “1984”, the Ministry of Truth spent each day changing history.
"and all the ones to come" that's the scary bit. AI is so good now think about the future, inevitable someone is going to be arrested wrongly and sentenced on falsified ai evidence
These future years are gonna be fascinating and terrifying. We’re able to recreate voices well now- perfectly later on. Generate false photos and videos well now, perfectly a few years down, and now edit photos incredibly well now- unbelievably perfect in no time.
Truth will become blurrier, opinions will have to be heavily researched or based on what feels right- with little in-between, and the only way we wouldn’t face these things is if we got hit with a solar flair that knocks out our internet.
This one was chef's kiss
Google missed an awesome opportunity in that showcase i.e. erasing Yezhov on that famous photo of him together with Stalin.
As a burgeoning photography hobbyist, this video validated everything I’ve been implicitly learning about the art form through the practice. Photography isn’t capturing a thing so much as it is capturing the story you’re telling about it.
Film photography is obviously the answer. I may be bias.
This is a fantastic video.
photo editing (to a certain degree) has been around for as long as photography has. AI is just making it easier and more accessible to regular people - although the possibilities are much wilder.
That remember me the scene of blade runner 2049, when the daughter of deckard was recreating the memoris of replicants.
"What actually happened" has always been a proximity illusion. Image making has always been about making new worlds, whether it be through capture or generating, the falsehood is that it was ever not that. New tools just make it more obvious for makers.
Just wait until we merge this with video and VR. This is definitely Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, but I wish we were finding way to make our memory better.
If it helps - imagine your photo as a painting - it never shows the reality yet an interpretation.
You may not realize that your high end smartphone doesn't take photos, but the AI in between takes the sensor information and THEN creates the photo in your camera roll.
History has always been written and rewritten to suit a situation / power.
And AI just makes that so much scarier.
Philip K.Dick's worlds are becoming more and more alive.
If you haven’t you should read Errol Morris’ book Believing is Seeing (observations on the mysteries of photography)
An even more interesting read now.
As a painter and photographer, I dislike photorealistic paintings bc that's what a camera is for. But it's fun to see the lines blurring more and more
I detest AI for various reasons, but it's not so much the AI itself that makes me uncomfortable... it's how people use it. Deleting a power line from the view? Adding an entire building to an empty forest trail? Guessing what's under someone's clothes? Ripping details from stories to paste together into something else? None of it is good. Much of it is bad. And my memory is bad enough, I don't need photographs to start changing on me.
we need those memory tapes from infinity train
I have the sensation that we always leave out of these conversations visual artists, and it is my opinion that these are all tools created mainly for them. This AI revolution feels like the photography revolution in an era of paintings: it's a new tools, things will change, we will have to learn how to use properly in our society
Such a thought provoking video , like always.
To play devil's advocate, although you can obviously twist a photo far beyond reality, you can also capture how it FELT better than a typical holiday snap would. For example, have you ever had those moments where you took a photo and were disappointed that the sky didn't look as blue as it really was, or the mountains didn't look as tall? Maybe you didn't take as many photos on the days with the best weather because you were just enjoying yourself so much or because the sun was dazzling the camera lense? Plus removing the odd tourist from the photo should be totally fair game because in reality that person wasn't glued to your head. They passed in a moment and your brain edited them out.
I got my copy and just need to read it
Your memories are your memories. It becomes a problem when you share your (fake) memories and those become our impression of you - deceptions.
This reminds me of 'Truth of fact, truth of feeling' by Ted Chiang
You can tell the cottage isnt real just by looking at it. Also the branches in the right look weird and get smaller towards the bottom. By the way you said it it was also clear you dont have a dog, however i wouldnt have expected the picture to be this small. And had you just shown it for 2sec probably noone would have noticed if this video was about any other topic. Ai is impressive, however its still got a long road ahead
I was surprisingly not ready for how hard this 5 minute video hit
The scary moment will be when this will be possible for real-life video editing. Then the software will be implemented on a pair of Smart Glasses, and I will be able to filter reality as I am living it.
Love the video; disagree that framing is distortion of reality -- it's interpretation. Sure, it can be good or bad interpretation, but that's something worth arguing about. Given that we frame the world by where we put our limited attention, the interpretive choices of film photography are creative & productive, healthy for humans as self-reflective critics in a way that Magic Editor totally is not.
Exactly well said.
Love your work! Especially your analyses of creative works. A great film that you should look at is Spider-Man Across the Spiderverse. Keep releasing amazing videos!
The past is not only what we want it to be. The past was and is by cause and effect. Editing memories to redefine the past doesn't change it
just because i smiled in a picture, doesnt mean i was happy when the picture was taken.
“‘Who controls the past...controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.’” - Orwell, 1984
We hold memory holes in our hands now.
took me longer to find the 1984 comment then I thought
but yes, it was the first thing that came to my mind too
@@darkrad7535 someone had to say it; I usually find "literally 1984" comments to be serious reaches, but it freakishly fits here
The solution could be to include the original version compressed into the photo itself? Sort of like a digital certificate embedded into its code
Loved the book and love this new video as well! The fact that editing a photo is becoming so accessible and easy is mind blowing and worrysome all at once.
Hi Evan. Thank you for the thoughtful and enjoyable content you give us! Truly appreciated.
I have a suggestion for you: Season of Migration to the North by Altayeb Salih. It's a short novel. I think you'll communicate with the interesting ideas in it. And hopefully make a video essay about it. But either way, enjoy!
Dude doctored photos are going to get so bad, I'm terrified.
The person who is editing films, videos, photos is truly deciding what is the perception, so in a way the outcome of it. It's like the final touches of the brush. Creating something more accurate, distorted or everything in between. We relying on it with our senses and base on it creating our "own" intepretation. While in traditional medias there is more sharing responsibilities for it, than in social medias and in the corners of internet it's becoming blurry. What if all will become like this? Who will we trust in the world of AI?
Many early memories are just memories of remembering them.
@@Crackdennumber1 I don't remember making this comment
Amazing video, scary reality
Black mirror could have a field day with this