Denim Blunders, Reflections and General Nonsense.

[Cold Summer]

Because "AI" is utopian marketing fluff for large language modeling and (thankfully) not an actual artificial intelligence, and I have a very low opinion of the whole thing in general.

After I wrote that post, it occurred to me that someone might also respond that such an idea isn't new and 20 years ago you could photoshop your fades to cheat at a denim competition/general clout for posting pictures online, which is quite true, but the difficulty of doing this (especially convincingly) is a lot higher than telling ChatGPT to Enhance The Fades.

Actually now I'm wondering if there have been any documented cases of somebody being found out for faking/photoshopping fades, whether for a contest or anything else. I can't remember hearing of that happening, but perhaps I missed it.

[julian-wolf]

I think the use of “filters” (in the modern, Instagrammy sense) to enhance fades has been prevalent in contexts like the Indigo Invitational for a slew of years now, and that takes a lot less effort than something like Photoshop 

[ATWM]

Contrast enhancement looks to be quite common last time I checked - which admittedly was some years ago. 
 

As for Ai being all marketing fluff, agree there’s a hype machine reminiscent of the crypto/NFT boom. It’s gross.

but LLMs are also rapidly changing many things in a lot of fields. To personalize it, if AI helps in leading to more specialized and targeted treatments that can eliminate the rest of my son’s brain tumor - which is possible - I will absolutely sing its praises. It was already modern tech development that played a large role in why he’s still alive today. Or if it leads to something similar for someone else, same thing. And it very well may. 

AI generative imagery is also based on the theft of artists from everywhere is rapidly leading to an internet full of even shittier (and nonsensical) ads while killing many parts of the photography industry, where I started my career and still participate some.
 

So my feelings are complicated but if I had to choose I’d take advances in healthcare which are real and which techno detractors have not yet answered to in a satisfactory way. 

For an anti Kingsnorthian sort of take I think it’s worth a read. Personally sort of fall in between this writer who is too high on it and Kingsnorth who writes with the same sort of comprehensive blinders he had when he was an environmental writer. Though I’m still a fan. 
 https://www.persuasion.community/p/the-peculiar-persistence-of-the-ai