TTG.photos: Welcome FAQ

Welcome FAQ

20 questions and answers for newcomers

1. What’s the big idea?

“Label trustworthy images, not deceptive ones.”

How does the TTG label work?
2. What good is TTG for the general public?

• The public increasingly assumes that remarkable images are “AI unless explained otherwise.”

• That calls for a way of instantly identifying exceptions to that assumption.

• The “TTG” label does exactly that, using only 3 letters.

Image providers can use the TTG label to become a go-to resource for anyone who wants to know which images are not AI.
3. Is it hard to make photos that qualify for the TTG label?

It couldn’t be easier! Just put your smartphone on “Photo,” avoid any effects, take a normal photo of something, and then leave the photo exactly as is.

The public already sees lots of TTG-qualified photos, not only with every widely trusted news photo but also including most of the billions of snapshots made every day.

There is nothing exotic or exclusive about TTG photos; they’re just normal photos that don’t involve any trickery or added effects.
4. Why have a label that applies to billions of photos?

Because when one of those billions of photos looks impressive, the “TTG” label is the easiest way to tell viewers that the photo shows only what the camera lens saw, with no AI content added.

(Most impressive photos seen outside of news settings would not qualify as TTG because they have been doctored to make them look impressive.)

“The greatest challenge in 21st-century photography will be making photos that are impressive-looking and are TTG-qualified.”
5. What does it mean when I see “TTG” in a photo credit?

If it is in a context that you fully trust, it means you can probably presume that the photographer is making the Trust Test Guarantee:

In that case, the person whose name is with the “TTG” is personally vouching that the photo has the same characteristics that are shared by the most-widely trusted photographs in the world.

But if the “TTG” is in a setting you don't trust, or if you have other cause for suspicion — perhaps the photographer is not identified, or the photo looks like it has AI-generated elements and there’s no explanation to convince you otherwise — then you should disregard the TTG label.
6. How do people sign up for TTG? How much does it cost?

There is never any signing up and never any cost.

Like the “Nonfiction” label on books, TTG is a principle, not a product.

That means that there is never any cost, registration, licensing, or permission involved in using any aspect of TTG — not for anyone, anywhere, anytime.
7. Who can attach the TTG label to a photo?

Anyone, at any level, anywhere in the world can make the Trust Test Guarantee by attaching the TTG label to their own photograph(s).

Because it reflects a personal guarantee, the TTG label can only be attached by photographers to their own photos — never to someone else’s — and viewers should disregard the label if the photographer is not identified.

When anyone other than the photographer — say, a news provider — shares a TTG-labeled photograph, they simply publish the name of the photographer who is staking his or her reputation on the guarantee.
8. Won’t it hurt TTG when lots of people on social media attach the TTG label to non-TTG-qualified photos?

No, not at all. Any misuse of the TTG label that prompts viewers to say, “That is a place where I would not trust the TTG label”...

. . . only advances TTG’s goal of helping the public evaluate image sources.

In other words,

• Use of the TTG label will help trustworthy image sources

• Use of the TTG label will hurt untrustworthy image sources
9. Is there always a visual difference between a non-TTG-qualified photo and a TTG-qualified photo?

No. The TTG label was created to help viewers because there often is no visual difference between a photo that shows what the camera saw and a photo that does not show what the camera saw.

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10. What kinds of photos is the TTG label useful for?

The TTG label can be useful in any context where viewers wonder whether they are seeing only what the camera saw, whatever the subject was.

Thus the TTG label is suited not just for news photos but for many different kinds of “non-news” subjects, from nature and wildlife to landscapes and cityscapes to adventure and travel to sports to documentary to street photos.
11. What kinds of photos is the TTG label not suited for?

TTG isn’t well suited to any kinds of photographs that are typically doctored — or augmented with AI — before being put before viewers.

Some of the largest categories of photos generally unsuited to TTG include advertising and marketing photos; many types of images on social media; stock and studio photography (food, fashion, products, portraits); smartphone panoramic photos; architectural and interior photos; and any photos where artistic/ interpretational choices keep the result from meeting P7.
12. What does the TTG label look like?

The TTG label doesn’t have a single “look.”

As with the “Nonfiction” label for books, the letters “TTG” can be in any font, color, size, and location except “on” the photo (nothing can be put into the image area that the camera did not see at the time of exposure, as per P1 of the Trust Test).

A normal photo credit is the simplest solution for labeling, e.g.:

Photo: TTG/Photographer’s Name/agencyphotos.com
13. What if I don’t personally have a need for TTG?

That’s fine! TTG was never intended for every photographer or every photograph (see #11 above).

Use of TTG is always completely optional and voluntary. Any photographer who chooses not to use TTG can keep making whatever changes they want to their own photos, whether they use AI or not.

Since each person applies the TTG label only to their own photos — never to anyone else’s — those who have no need for TTG can easily ignore it. TTG will always be there for those who don’t need it now but may want to use it in the future.
14. What if I don’t think any photograph can ever equal “reality”?

Join the club: TTG never equates any photograph with “reality,” because no photograph can ever equal a three-dimensional real-world scene.

Instead, TTG is solely about identifying trustworthy “records.”

• Every picture that looks like a photograph either is or is not an undoctored record of what the camera lens saw at the time of exposure. (That’s what viewers want to know when they see a remarkable image.)

• Only a photo that is an undoctored record can qualify for the TTG label.
15. Why do people ask “Is it real?” when they see a great photo?

Because they are trying to decide how much they can trust it.

With the word “real” they are asking whether they are seeing only what the camera lens saw or whether the picture has had any AI-generated elements added.
16. Why doesn’t TTG allow adding any AI-generated content?

Because TTG exists to help viewers identify which photos they can trust…

. . . and AI-generated content is only added to improve a photo’s appearance, never to increase its trustworthiness.

The most-trusted photographs show only what the camera lens saw.

What is “AI creep”?
17. What about photos that have no AI but can still be deceptive, like a photo of a roaring zoo lion that is implied to be in the wild?

TTG makes it easy to avoid deception, by alerting viewers to “inapparent circumstances” in the making of the photo.

Any time that “inapparent circumstances” are likely to cause deception, TTG photographers are required by P8 to use the TTG-IC version of the label (adding a * when needed to point to additional explanation).

When viewers see TTG-IC, it means that the photographer is declaring that the photo shows what the camera saw – but that the photo does not depict what it appears to depict because of “inapparent circumstances.”
18. What about posed photos? What about staged photos?

Posed photos in which viewers can instantly detect the set-up aspects are unlikely to deceive viewers, so no special treatment is usually necessary.

However, staged photos in which viewers cannot instantly detect the set-up aspects are likely to deceive viewers, so staged photos can qualify as TTG only if the “TTG-IC” version of the label is used (see #17 above).
19. Can selfies qualify as TTG?

Yes, as long as they meet all of the requirements of the Trust Test.

Note in particular the smartphone-related specifics enumerated in P2.
20. Why not label AI-generated pictures instead of non-AI ones?

Because billions of images with AI-generated elements are already online without labels. It is far too late to enforce a labeling requirement for even a tiny fraction of them.

Images are not constrained by national borders, and the most dangerous images coming from other countries are unlikely to come with warning labels.

There is only one realistic defense against the coming deluge of deceptive images: having the public continually identify which image sources are the most trustworthy. The only way to identify those sources is through frequently applied trust tests.

“But I’m really good at detecting AI in pictures!”