GenAI slop and animal photography
Even wildlife. I was looking up pictures of hyacinth macaws for art reference, and I was surprised by the sheer amount of AI slop. The ratio of real birds to AI pisses me off, because it's getting that much more prevalent.
A lot of it is genuinely so god-awful that one look at it any bird lover knows it's fake. But some of it is getting more convincing. Exhibit A: the image on the bottom left—I had to check the rest of the website to be certain it was AI. When I saw on the same page a red hyacinth macaw and one with three legs, only then I was certain.
REAL photographs of REAL animals exist. They're magical because, in that moment, someone captured their vision of an animal in real time. Photography, editing, and photoshops is both a hobby and a skill that has real human love and passion behind it.
Not to mention how weird the genAI images look. Aside from the obvious anatomical inaccuracies of the worse ones, AI has that overly-polished, glossy look to it that doesn't reflect the imperfections of real life. Not only is it wrong; it's also ... dystopian.
Why are we replacing photos of real, beautiful animals with this slop? It's a disservice to not only the species these images are supposed to be depicting, but also the real photographers who put effort into their craft.
Pretty sure 90% of people on Tumblr already hate genAI, but it's fucking annoying that it's infiltrated the communities of wildlife lovers too. Maybe this is an Ecosia problem, but I also had similar experiences with Google Chrome and Opera GX. Anyway, fuck genAI.
