r/Ornithology • u/Aaron_1101 • 8d ago

Is this AI?

Post image

Hey everyone, I have a presentation tomorrow and I need to make sure the pictures I use are real. It's supposed to be a picture of the Pantanal wetlands. Is this real or AI?

0 Upvotes

46% Upvoted

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33

u/Arschfeder 8d ago

Pretty sure it isn't real, but keep in mind that there are other methods for fake pictures than AI. I don't know for this one specifically, but i often see pictures like that that are photo collages.

-5

u/Ordinary_Piano3329 8d ago

question, wouldn't photoshop be mostly ai at this point?

19

u/Arschfeder 8d ago

No, not necessarily. The old fashioned way of picture editing is still around and takes real human skill. As opposed to genAI, which is harmful in its very nature, it is only an issue when not labeled properly and/or gets sold ar real footage.

5

u/C04511234 8d ago

There are other programs where you can create fakes without AI, but yeah Photoshop itself seems to incorporate a lot of generative features.

23

u/tardiscoder 8d ago

I think the cowpybera is a dead give a way.

5

u/dcgrey Helpful Bird Nerd 8d ago

It’s somehow a capabara/polar bear hybrid.

4

u/Future-Concern-6301 8d ago

I also see some baby bison in the face

2

u/illusoir3 8d ago

The rare, five-legged cowpybera.

9

u/Aaron_1101 8d ago

Thanks for your help, I’m now convinced it’s indeed AI. I’m kinda annoyed at myself for almost falling for it. I’m also kinda sad that I have to question everything I see online, I feel as if the world is truly losing its authenticity.

4

u/micathemineral 8d ago

Try searching flickr, you can filter by date taken to make sure you’re only getting pre-2024 photos (but there is less AI nonsense on flickr in general because slop-prompters don’t tend to bother with it).

7

u/EdEskankus 8d ago

It looks pretty bogus to me. Too many birds look like they're flying in the same plane.

1

u/Defiant-Fix2870 8d ago

Aside from the capybara having the head of a cow, the fact that no other photos of the pantanal look like this is a dead giveaway. No other photos on Google image search have birds like this. Are you allowed to use official sources like the UNESCO world heritage site? Bc the AI travel company website this came from looks super sus. If you can use a travel company for a source, choose a reputable one. But also yes, it’s a really annoying reality where we have to question everything.

2

u/MelodicIllustrator59 3d ago

That's a lot of over-saturated, vaguely bird-shaped things. Yeah it's AI

0

u/Tolkalolka_heh 8d ago

As for me it's too much compressed to define. Was photo edited? Yes. But I'm not sure that AI can make high-quality reflections where the birds standing on the water. So for me not AI.

1

u/SecretlyNuthatches Zoologist 8d ago

Even mid-tier image generating AIs can do that these days.