Video / Short
AI Images: Will We Trust What We See
A discussion of how convincing AI-generated images and video challenge the assumption that visual media records something that happened in reality.
Video summary
Pete Cooper considers how AI-generated images and video challenge a longstanding assumption that visual media records something that happened. He notes that photography has always involved choices of moment, angle, lens and lighting, but says it still began with a real scene.
The concern is that synthetic media can increasingly look like ordinary photographs or video, making it harder to judge what is based on reality at a glance. The discussion asks how society might cope with that shift, rather than offering a definitive answer.
Video transcript
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We as as a society, as human beings, as as a as a civilization, up until now, you know, since the invention of photography at least, we assume a visual image is based on reality. Of course, we've always been able to manipulate it. We choose the moment, we choose the angle, we choose the lens, we choose the lighting, or we don't choose it. But it's always based on a reality. You know that a photo happened.
Mhm.
Okay. and a video happened. And so this is something I definitely want to talk about with AI because to me it's the biggest concern. We're now seeing images that look like photographs and look like video. They may be over the top.
Okay, if you see a horse with wings flying, you know it's not a real photo,
but you know they they can look and they will now always be able to look like a real image. How do we cope with that as a society where we just unconsciously assume that what we're seeing, you know, if we don't have time to think about it, is true, is based on reality and fact.
Yeah. Yeah.