AI creep

“AI creep” is TTG’s term for the reality that once any AI-generated content (AI-GC) is added to a visual record — whether photo or video — then there are no limits except arbitrary limits to constrain further use of AI-GC.

The “creep” happens when an image creator or provider realizes that viewers who didn’t object to the addition of a little bit of AI-GC surely wouldn’t object to a little more AI-GC — and, since there’s no natural stopping point, the AI-GC can eventually dominate the image.

Photos and videos are different from other expressions

Unlike many other modern forms of expression, photos and videos can be detailed records, made by a human being in mere seconds, of a real-life scene.

In fact, most of the billions of photos and videos created every day start out as records (“This is where I was and what I saw”).

That explains why viewers often care whether the photo or video they’re seeing is or is not a trustworthy record of what a particular person saw (at a particular place, at a particular time), undiluted by the addition of even a single pixel of AI-generated content.

The “zero tolerance” approach to adding AI-generated content in TTG photos and videos may seem harsh.

But unless and until someone can create standards for “partial use” of AI-generated content, the viewing public is unlikely to fully trust photos and videos that are suspected of having any added AI-generated content at all.