The Lost Ideal of the Image, by Josep M. Jeanette

Last week I wrote about the occurrence I for In the communication audiovisual In general and its impact on political communication in particular. 60% of the world's population is participating this year lawsuit Electoralmultiplied by the ease of access to image creation and processing platforms, amounts to a powerhouse networks SocialThey form the perfect storm. And this AI is still not very intelligent. Just look at the fake pictures Trump card With black voters that we saw last week. And we can believe that all this can only get worse: alas when it comes IA General!

In fact, it is irrelevant. If you're one of those who worry that intelligent machines — whatever that means — might one day take over the world, I have some bad news and some good news: They've already done that, and they don't have to be so smart. Or maybe we are the ones who are not enough; We don't need a lot of technology to be fooled. In this sense, I am fascinated by the controversy surrounding the photo published by Her Royal Highness Catherine of Wales, Princess of Wales and the future Queen of England.

“AI is still not intelligent”

A photo of a mother and her children uploaded on a social media network should not have more importance. Unless you're British royalty, and no one has seen you for three months, the photo has been processed and you've uploaded it to X. Each of these things has been screwed up enough; It's all together Crossing final between the crown, black Mirror I Crimes. Hello conspirators and couch potatoes. The photo continues to be uploaded to Instagram of the Princes of Wales:

The agencies were Getty Images, AP, Reuters I France He presses Who confirmed all suspicions by withdrawing the picture from their catalogs and releasing it Murder notice He urged the media not to use it or withdraw it, which is a very exceptional fact. They had no other; The manipulation is clear and the prestige of these agencies depends on the authenticity and traceability of their images. If there is a photo, it happened. certainly?

It seems contradictory, but what we see in the photo published by His Royal Highness also happened. The same agencies and verification and tracking service affiliated with BBC (I was talking about this too last week) They analyze the metadata of the image. The photo was taken with a Canon camera and edited Photo shop On a Mac and saved twice: on March 8, 2024 at 9:54 PM and on March 9, 2024 at 9:39 AM. The Photoshop version was not the latest and therefore lacked generative AI functionality, which is evident by seeing the manipulation.

More information: The blablaosphere and retrograde

One possible explanation could be that because there were four people in the photo, three imposters, they took some photos and then combined them into one photo, choosing the best face from each photo for each of the royal members. Photoshop is very good at doing this. On the website forAdobe You have an entry that literally says “Merge multiple photos into a group photo“I'm sure Princess Catherine was having a good time this time last week in this very hallway.

If the controversy is interesting, the meta-argument, the controversy over the controversy, is even more so. At the same time it was giving birth to all sorts of conspiracy theories, some of them fell in love with it Black mirror And the others are like Crimes– Debate has opened up in the networks and the media about whether the debate is transcendent: who explains all the details that can be seen in the photo – and also everything that cannot be seen, such as a wedding ring – and who rationally says that we are all more or less than that? Edit the photos before uploading them , including Her Royal Highness. Empiricists versus rationalists, again.

“If the controversy is interesting, the meta-argument, the controversy over the controversy, even more so.”

One of those who entered into the meta-controversy was a photographer from Lleida Jordi F. fatherWhich also works with artificial intelligence and better person. In fact, with the house brand's tweet, he ended the controversy and meta-controversy. He says: “This obsession with exposing manipulated images is sick and a waste of time.” It clings to a lost ideal. It would be easier to assume that we will never be able to believe them soon. “We will definitely be happier.”