[HN Gopher] AI 'Street Photography' Isn't Photography: What We L...
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       AI 'Street Photography' Isn't Photography: What We Lose by
       Simulating Experience
        
       Author : smnrg
       Score  : 17 points
       Date   : 2024-12-21 16:56 UTC (1 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (simone.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (simone.org)
        
       | benatkin wrote:
       | AI is trained on images from physical cameras, so maybe it can be
       | considered to be gathered from light. It is also simulating
       | light. I can imagine some thought of raytracing as photography.
       | So I'm not sure gatekeeping the term _photography_ will work.
        
         | Etheryte wrote:
         | Words mean something and just because the result is similar
         | doesn't mean it's the same thing. Creating a photorealistic
         | painting doesn't make it a photograph just like a photograph of
         | a painting is not a painting.
        
         | Algebra5502 wrote:
         | Going beyond the title shows this isn't about gatekeeping
         | terminology. It's about what we lose when we substitute genuine
         | human interaction with AI comfort, and how simulating an
         | experience isn't the same as living it. The experience never
         | happened, so any AI image is precisely 'simulacra' - a copy
         | without an original. The elder's smile in Chinatown couldn't
         | have been prompted, and if it was, that would just prove the
         | point about simulacra and missing the real experience.
        
         | jajko wrote:
         | I definitely dont think so, its insulting to anybody who ever
         | engaged in actual photography and put the serious effort in to
         | learn this craft / art blend.
         | 
         | Same can be said about fake music, paintings or soon fake
         | movies. Do you put the same impact or value to old masters
         | paintings vs endless cheap AI generated stuff? AI novelty
         | already wore off quite some time ago for those.
         | 
         | Can it be consumed and enjoyed? Of course, everbody has their
         | preferred fun, ie people already wasted millions of lives in
         | virtual worlds for fun, relax, or to cater to their loneliness
         | or addiction. Usually but not always to detriment to their real
         | lives but thats another topic.
         | 
         | Everybody enjoy whatever works for you, but dont hijack widely
         | accepted words and meanings just because it momentarily suits
         | you or you try to push some narrative, on 0 effort lazy things
         | like this.
        
         | rjahra wrote:
         | Indeed, preventing co-opting positive terms by non-creative
         | people who devise ever new ways of redistributing IP of
         | actually creative people won't work.
         | 
         | They'll just do it and come up with convoluted
         | rationalizations.
        
         | romanobro56 wrote:
         | Opting to define 'photography' is definitely not the same as
         | gatekeeping
        
       | acomjean wrote:
       | I was new to New York in the late 90s. I watched some people
       | playing card games for money (3 card monte scam). I took out my
       | camera and click. Every head turned towards me. "No pictures", I
       | nodded and muttered something back incoherent as if I didn't
       | speak quite understand what the fuss was about. They kept
       | playing.
       | 
       | It's different now when everyone has a camera and the results are
       | available instantly.
       | 
       | I have to go back through my photos and sort and group more. This
       | is something I feel ai would be supper helpful with.
        
       | vouaobrasil wrote:
       | In my opinion the sine qua non of photography and indeed all art
       | is that it _transmits human experience_ because shared experience
       | is one of the core binding elements and joys of human existence.
       | 
       | The internet and now AI has slowly separated the experience from
       | the final product. That's absolutely an emergent pressure that
       | comes from digital sharing simply because sites that encourage
       | that are more likely to get more engagement due to the resulting
       | superficiality when art is separated from experience.
       | 
       | As much as I hate AI, I think AI itself should be considered an
       | artistic reflection of _machine experience_. But by elevating
       | that, we lower ourselves and forget the true meaning of sharing
       | art for the purposes of human connection. So we are giving up a
       | legacy and tradition for economic short-term advantage and the
       | opiate-like qualities of advanced technology.
       | 
       | It's a sad process and one I think we should fight against,
       | although I acknowledge I am in the minority.
        
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       (page generated 2024-12-21 18:01 UTC)