The advancement of AI technology has raised a question that once had an easy answer: What is a photograph?
Samsung sparked controversy earlier this year when its Head of Customer Experience Patrick Chomet argued that there “is no such thing as a real picture.” Now Qualcomm, a company that provides system-on-chip semiconductor products for smartphones via its Snapdragon series, has entered into the debate.
“It’s an interesting question because the human brain is not digital,” Qualcomm’s Senior Vice President Chis Patrick said at a roundtable interview at the Snapdragon Summit in Hawaii this week, per Tech Radar.
“When you perceive the sunset outside, you don’t perceive the sunset absent of context. You know where you are. You know what you’re smelling. You know what you’re hearing, You know what you’re feeling. You know what a sunset looks like, right? All of that is part of how you perceive the space.
“So then, when we capture an image, should it just be the raw response from the sensor? Or is it right to include context in how that picture is created? I’m not an expert. I don’t have a PhD in this topic, but I do think it’s not as simple as a real image and a fake image. I think context matters, and extracting the very best we can from the whole situation is an accurate reflection of what the eye and the brain do as well.”
It’s quite a confusing answer and one to dwell on. However, Tech Radar reports that Patrick continued by saying that a fake picture of someone on the Moon should be clearly labeled as AI-generated.
“So, for us, it’s very clear that there has to be some mechanism to distinguish the other extreme — those manipulated images — for people. We’re building incredible technology together but we want to make sure that, in the end, it does not have a destructive impact, where people can no longer tell the difference between truth and fiction,” adds Patrick.
While professionals and photo editing experts have been able to manipulate images for decades, the technology is now being made readily available to just about anyone via tools such as Google’s Magic Eraser and Apple’s Clean Up tool. Smartphone manufacturers are having to think hard about how far they should go with AI photos. Yesterday, Apple said that it wants to keep smartphone photos true to reality.
Image credits: DXOMARK
