AI will come to a mainstream camera; it’s only a matter of time. Somewhere, in some boardroom, the case is being made right now to inject some level of AI — most likely generative — into the tool of photography, and the first brand to do it will be the last. And they will regret it.
Conversations to do this are happening right now. There will be some internal pushback, of course, citing the blowback that both Caira and Profoto have received, among others. But it won’t matter. Mr. Camera Company Executive won’t listen, because his AI is going to be different, you see.
Caira, by Camera Intelligence, is the new name behind the Alice Camera and its integration of generative AI into the image pipeline was met with a mixture of disgust and disdain.
“Can I just say how much I hate literally everything about this? A whole generation of people are going to end up capturing decades of ‘memories’ that are all fake,” a PetaPixel reader responded to the news that Google’s Nano Banana would be supported natively by the Micro Four Thirds camera.
Profoto’s wild, misguided attempt to make AI seem like the future of lighting was met with a similar response, with particular focus on how tone deaf it was. The overwhelming number of responses had an air of shock to them, as if they could not believe how misguided the company was being.
“The forest was shrinking, but the trees kept voting for the axe. For the axe was clever, and convinced the trees that because his handle was made of wood, he was one of them,” one comment on Profoto’s Instagram post reads.
For some inexplicable reason, most likely arrogance, these brands seem to think that because powerful executives at Google and OpenAI won’t stop trying to shove AI down the population’s collective throat, it must actually be popular. So popular, photographers will cheer as the temperature of the water slowly increases as they’re boiled alive.
That is, thankfully, not the reality of the situation. For every photo brand that attempts to push AI onto them, photographers push right back. But for some reason, brands keep trying it. Maybe it goes back to that arrogance.
“They did it wrong,” or “that wasn’t us,” or “we’ll be different.”
No, you won’t. You aren’t.
Look, it’s not too late to stop this fool’s errand. The money you might make by adding AI to a camera will not offset the irreversible brand damage you will do to yourself by trying it. Photographers, real photographers who actually buy your products and act like evangelists for your brand, despise AI. They’re smart enough to see that it’s yet another attack on their livelihoods and hobbies.
Sharing great, beautiful photos online is already an exercise in exhaustion, as you’ll see constant and endless accusations that your art was made by AI, because generative AI tools have made it so the public doesn’t believe its own eyes anymore.
I hope you, Mr. Camera Company Executive, are smart enough to see that making this problem even worse isn’t going to net you positive reactions. It will curse you. It will doom you.
When you put AI in a camera, you will regret it.
Image credits: All elements of header photo licensed via Depositphotos.com.