AI Images in 2024: Photography Strikes Back
At the end of 2023 it was beginning to look like AI images — a new and novel way of producing pictures — were an existential threat to photography. By the end of 2024, that threat had been extinguished somewhat.
In 2023, AI images were winning prestigious photo competitions. In 2024, real photos were winning AI image competitions.
Turning the Tables
In June, a photographer was disqualified from a picture competition after his real photograph won in the AI image category.
“I wanted to show that nature can still beat the machine and that there is still merit in real work from real creatives,” the photographer Miles Astray told PetaPixel.
Astray’s photo of a headless flamingo placed third in the AI category of the 1839 Color Photography Awards and it won the People’s Vote Award.
Six Fingers on Trump’s Hand
President-elect Donald Trump had no qualms with sharing AI imagery throughout his campaigning year of 2024. And while there were more serious instances of Trump’s AI use, such as false endorsements from mega pop star Taylor Swift, the most light-hearted instance was when he shared an AI image of himself praying with six fingers.
The ridiculous image, which also saw him kneeling the wrong way around at a pew in a church, was shared by Trump on his Truth Social page. It was immediately flagged by commenters who straight away knew the telltale signs of AI getting hands wrong; a reassuring sign that people are becoming savvy when looking at AI material.
Accusations That Super Bowl Ad Photos Were AI-Generated
When a series of powerful foot-washing photographs for a Jesus ad played during Super Bowl LVIII in February, many online commentators speculated or outright declared that they were AI-generated.
But photographer Julia Fullerton-Batten revealed to PetaPixel that she was commissioned by a group called He Gets Us to shoot a series of high-quality, fine art photos of people washing the feet of others. The photo shoots were huge productions resulting in cinematic images.
“That’s a problem when something’s so beautifully and highly produced that people start questioning if it’s real or not real,” Fullerton-Batten said at the time.
“I think that’s a shame. That makes me very sad because we spent so much time creating and there was amazing teamwork from everybody involved and people make flippant comments, ‘Is it AI?’”
The Botched ‘Made With AI’ Label Introduced by Instagram
In a bid to do something about the avalanche of AI images appearing on the internet, Meta introduced “Made with AI” labels on Facebook and Instagram.
However, the introduction was deeply flawed with PetaPixel proving Meta was incorrectly labeling images as generated by AI when they were not.
The backlash caused Meta to change the “Made with AI” label that appears on Instagram to “AI Info” instead.
Tricksters Making Fake Tragedy Images
A series of hurricanes hit the U.S. this fall and when Hurricane Helene devastated parts of North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and Florida, online tricksters created and shared AI images purporting to show victims of flooding.
Experts questioned whether these fake images going viral are damaging to the real victims of these events as people grow wary of misinformation.
This ‘1989 Photo of a Man Smoking in McDonald’s’ Is Not What it Seems
Back in February, a viral image of a man sitting in a McDonald’s restaurant while smoking a cigarette and eating a burger purportedly taken in 1989, was captioned “peak male specimen”.
However while the AI image achieved a decent level of verisimilitude, a couple of artifacts gave the game away including garbled text, one too many fingers, and grotesque background characters.
AI Polar Bear Sweeps Social Media
And finally, 2024 was the year AI video established itself and despite its many flaws, an AI video of a polar bear “being rescued” spread across the internet like wildfire — duping many.
For photographers who have dedicated their lives to capturing real polar bears, seeing fake wildlife videos go viral was disappointing.
