My computer has just had its 10th birthday, a MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Mid 2014.) Its operating system was stuck at MacOS Big Sur.
A few months ago my Adobe Creative Cloud subscription refused to upgrade Lightroom, as the new version required new hardware and new OS.
Adobe has recently added generative AI into Photoshop. You can now use prompts and talk to it.
AI tools demand ample horsepower. My computer has Intel i7 processor and Intel Iris graphics card, relics from not so distant past.
Despite the hype, I approach using AI cautiously. There is a danger of losing our creativity if we offload too much of our skillset to AI. Being creative is what keeps me going, it is the fuel of my spirit, it is what makes me human.
Realising the distinction between fixing photographs and making photographs is important. Soon AI will be able to do both.
Getting help from AI to do tedious tasks, for example, culling hundreds of similar images is interesting. Currently editing is the most boring and time-consuming aspect of digital photography. I would welcome AI if it could be trained to keep what I think as the best, an agent that understands my taste.
I am not even remotely interested in getting AI to create fake images. For me photography is about capturing reality. There is camera and there is photographer. The photographer is the sole agent who makes the decision to frame and shoot the picture. If AI makes that decision, an entirely plausible prospect, then AI becomes the photographer, not me. Where is the fun in that?
