Artificial Intelligence (AI) has taken by storm the creators’ community all over the world, and everybody talks about the creation of images using text.

And although the use of AI in image creation might seem like a playground for some or a big joke for others, we must consider the effect that will have on photography in general and what we, photographers, should expect.

In the present time the AI manages to produce some nice results in image creation, but most of us can understand that the images are “fake” or to say it better these images are not photos. The problem will start when we will cannot distinguish an AI image from an actual photo.

Already we have a huge problem with “photographers” that posted “photographs” in which the sky had been changed, and the Milky Way was upside down, or an animal have been placed in a mountain that is not its habitat. These so-called “photographers” manage to play unfair and gain fame or even money, deceiving the viewer.

So what is going on with these new AI software that can produce images of places, people or animals that don’t exist in reallity?

As I am very tech-savvy, and I love technology with its advantages and disadvantages, I gave it a go and tried to create images with the help of AI, being very curious about the results I would get. I used the Image Creator new function in Microsoft Edge. For each text I gave to the AI, it produced 4 square images. I will post the best image or images of the four, that look quite good and are closer to reality.

From my tests, I saw that AI found it especially difficult to create a night sky full of stars or the Milky Way or some well-known landmarks. It did quite good with fantasy situations, animals and some places. Especially when I typed Meteora Greece, all four images were really good.

Thinking that AI is just starting, and in the future it will only get better, I cannot imagine how good it can get. And that, as a professional photographer and image creator, scares me.

I believe that we will have a lot of photography genres, like product photography, fashion photography, or photography for editorial use that will be challenged from this technology. Speaking about nature, wildlife and landscape photography, of course there will be big problems with fake photos (AI images) that will claim that captured the reality of our world, but I want to believe that there will be ways to track the fakery and the liars.

More than that, what AI will never will be capable to do (talking with what I can imagine for the future), is to recreate the experience of being outdoors, hunting for that great unique photo, feeling nature to its core, and feel the urge to shoot the best photo you can of an animal, plant or place.

Now I will let you take a look at what AI can create from text, having a feeling that in the future will be amazed from the results we will get from the same words. It is 2023 now, and already we see things that we couldn’t imagine 5 or 10 years ago.

Pelican with knight armour

Sunrise over Plastira lake (the actual Plastira lake in this video)

White Tower of Thessaloniki with Milky Way

The AI didn’t give good results in this sentence. Especially the night sky in all the tests was bad.

Acropolis in Athens with Milky Way

Woman with hat

Cat with hat

Photo of Milky Way in the night sky, above the Theodoriana refuge- Stavros

Car in the forest

Pelican flying over lake

Pelican flying over Kerkini lake, wings spread for landing

Yellow tent with light inside at night, setup near dragonlake Timfi in Greece

Photographer shooting with a mirrorless Fujifilm camera with a 50mm prime lens on a tripod, the night sky full of stars and the Milky Way next to Helmos Observatory in Greece.

Monastery in Meteora, Greece