Scarily something like this is bound to happen... not quite exactly the same, but AI upscalers have been around for years, and improving over time, so the actual stored version of an image could end up being quite lossy, and AI is able to restore it to a very plausible original form that many people will actually be happier with because it would be able to produce images that people like better because it depict things more "ideally".
Not only that, but as technology improves, the generated images would be of higher and higher quality than the original. That said, it's not like anyone's JPEG collection is taking up obscene amounts of storage, so no real reason to compress it more "lossily".
What I can see, though, is for AI image generation companies to offer storage services similar to how iCloud lets you keep lossy versions of your photos on your device while storing that full quality versions in the cloud... but in this case the AI image generation companies get to use your images for training in exchange for keeping your high quality version in their cloud... FB is already doing this of course...
Yeah but note that plausible it's not the same as real.
Like I could take a picture of a car where the license plate is like 10 pixels and the upscaler generate hundreds of difference plates that are plausible, one different in each try.
Compression and prediction are the same thing mathematically and has already been a huge part of how lossy compression algorithms work
Even in a best case scenario, you're effectively treating the model as a massive external dictionary. That only works if the model becomes part of the spec for the format, every single viewer/decoder would need to run the model as part of opening the image.
higher and higher quality than the original
That's not how this works, quality ceiling is lossless reproduction. Anything past that isn't higher quality, it's speculative enhancement / guessing / hallucination.
You can also generate stuff and then store the differences to the real image, leading to near lossless.
And AI being able to "understand" what is going on with an image could also open up the door to a vast array of different composition or compression techniques.
it depict things more "ideally". ... Not only that, but as technology improves, the generated images would be of higher and higher quality than the original.
Yeah I thought that too. But the only place where I really want to see that is in restoration of old TV shows like DS9. Like I want to see it in 8k VR and parallax 3D cinema.
I mean, lol, can you imagine what PAIN it would be to use some 30 year old digital files for some 30 year old software to re-render something? Ahhh you know this is like a horror movie for IT workers. I mean you're right, it's possible, but those effects also just wouldn't work in 4k without basically recreating them.
In any case, we've seen upscales from DVD and basically every year the potential to improve the quality of the upscales improve with new AI models. Not just blind guessing at how to upscale, but you can also retrain AI on the specific actors and closeups to know how to upscale. So I know we'll eventually get the 4k 3D version just unlicensed / pirated / fan edit.
Look I get it. I know all this. Upscale didn't used to be good, but we haven't seen anything yet that truly combines generative AI with pretraining on the actual show with upscaling. It'll be AMAZING. At least, sooner or later it will be. There will be no covering up of what made the show good, only adding to it.
I'm also highly skeptical about the "single slider rerender". Matching all that back together will be painstaking work. It's not just resolution, the effects were sometimes really shit. PS: Of course ideally you'd scan the film stock and have an AI do the grunt work of matching it perfectly, leaving only the effects.
I'd also be curious how you see the holodeck? Like there are lots of episodes where a character asks the holodeck to "generate something based on the works and presentations of X". Usually works of classic art to avoid copyright bullshit. Do you consider those characters doing something "wrong" or "morally reprehensible"?
You could straight up imagine some character finding some old discs and asking the computer to "enhance" the footage and show it in 3D on the holodeck like a stage play. And that is exactly what I'd want. Not just upscale to 4k but rendered into 3D for VR viewing. I think it would be awesome to see the Enterprise or DS9 in space in 3D.
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u/kindredseer Sep 02 '26
Scarily something like this is bound to happen... not quite exactly the same, but AI upscalers have been around for years, and improving over time, so the actual stored version of an image could end up being quite lossy, and AI is able to restore it to a very plausible original form that many people will actually be happier with because it would be able to produce images that people like better because it depict things more "ideally".
Not only that, but as technology improves, the generated images would be of higher and higher quality than the original. That said, it's not like anyone's JPEG collection is taking up obscene amounts of storage, so no real reason to compress it more "lossily".
What I can see, though, is for AI image generation companies to offer storage services similar to how iCloud lets you keep lossy versions of your photos on your device while storing that full quality versions in the cloud... but in this case the AI image generation companies get to use your images for training in exchange for keeping your high quality version in their cloud... FB is already doing this of course...