Getaway, a popular South African travel magazine, has published an AI-generated image of the world-famous Blyde River Canyon on the front cover of its October 2024 issue, sparking a controversy in journalism circles.
Getaway has built its brand on travel journalism and is known for its landscape and wildlife photography, so the publication of an image generated by generative artificial intelligence tools is odd – and raises important journalistic questions.
“Getaway has made its reputation on natural wonders and excellent photography to capture those natural wonders,” Gus Silber, a well-known South African journalist, in an interview with TechCentral on Wednesday.
“There is a genuine concern among media workers that AI is going to take their jobs. If you are using it to replace human photography, then you are making a statement. Getaway needs to explain if their policies allow the use of AI, and when they use it, they must acknowledge it,” Silber said.
The image on the October cover of Getaway is supposed to be of the Blyde River Canyon in Mpumalanga. However, anyone who has been to the canyon will know the image doesn’t quite match reality. Captioned “Natural Wonder” by the magazine, closer inspection by professional photographer Des Jacobs found that although the image may be a “wonder”, there is very little about it that’s natural.
“I have been to the Blyde River Canyon a lot, mostly for landscape photography. Many landscape photographers, including me, have photographed this canyon from a lot of different angles and viewpoints,” Jacobs said in a Facebook post earlier this week.
‘In good faith’
“I have never seen the canyon like it’s presented here in your cover image. I can only assume that you have used an AI-generated image as you also don’t mention the photographer of this image in the magazine. If you do make use of AI-generated images for your magazine, please make sure that it represents the real look of the actual area,” Jacobs posted.
According to Ryan Vrede, head of motoring and travel at Habari Media, which owns and publishes Getaway, the image was used “in good faith” that it was indeed a real photograph.
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“The image is sourced from Shutterstock and there was no way for us to know there was an AI element to the image. Shutterstock comes with a fair degree of credibility, and we have never had that issue before. Had we known the image was AI generated, we would not have used it,” Vrede told TechCentral.
Getaway credited Shutterstock on the contents page of the issue in question. When TechCentral searched for the term “Blyde River Canyon” on the Shutterstock website, the same image as the one on the Getaway cover came up as the first result. According to the website, the image’s “photographer”, Usmanbeautifulphoto, is based in Pakistan and has been a Shutterstock contributor since August, or for only two months.
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Although Shutterstock has an AI image generation tool that can be used by its subscribers, the platform does not allow contributors like Usmanbeautifulphoto to submit AI-generated content and claim income for it. This suggests a problem with the company’s image-vetting procedures.
“We want to ensure contributors can prove IP ownership of all submitted content. Since AI content generation models leverage the IP of many artists and their content, AI-generated content ownership cannot be assigned to an individual,” Shutterstock’s terms of service on its website state.
Many of the around 120 images on Usmanbeautifulphoto’s profile are “aglow with the luminous, slightly otherworldly plasticity associated with AI-generated imagery,” Silber said. “Out of interest, I prompted Canva Create (a very easy-to-use AI application) to produce an AI image of the Blyde River Canyon. The resulting image was strikingly similar to this one,” said Silber in a Facebook post.
AI’s encroachment on landscape and wildlife photography is a hot topic the world over. In June, Nature magazine announced it would not allow AI-generated imagery for articles that were not specifically about AI. Similar to the Shutterstock, Nature cited concerns about unknown sources, improper attribution and intellectual property rights as its reasons. But as birdwatching website Audubon has observed, there are other dangers associated with AI imagery, including the displacement of wildlife photographers.
“With each month, generative AI models are improving at creating images and making art, as well as writing articles, songs, recipes and computer code. These giant steps are forcing many industries to grapple with existential crises,” Audubon said in a post comparing award-winning birding photographs to AI-generated images of the same scenarios.
‘Learning for everyone’
According to Silber, Getaway’s use of the AI-generated image on its cover should spark an important debate about the technology’s use in the media and creative arts in South Africa. He said given the cost constraints facing media businesses, AI can be a useful adjunct to the creative process, but only if used appropriately.
“People who work in the media today have to be AI savvy and identify AI-generated images… This should be a strong learning for everyone,” said Silber. – © 2024 NewsCentral Media
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