Experts warn increase in enhanced photos on birding platforms creating fake sightings, threatening credibility of tool used by scientists
For many birdwatchers, recording a species outside its normal range is the holy grail. In the UK, the discoveries often make national headlines. The western reef heron, for example, usually found in Africa and southern Europe, was spotted in a seaside town in north Wales in June, and widely celebrated on birding forums.
But a new scourge is threatening to disrupt the fun: AI slop.
Scientists are appealing to birders to limit their use of AI when editing images over fears that it could undermine the credibility of popular citizen science platforms such as iNaturalist and Macaulay Library, which are routinely used in scientific research to monitor species’ habitat range.
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Lees points to the example of a false sighting of a red-winged blackbird in central Brazil, which is usually found in North America and had never been seen in this area of Brazil until the reported sighting. The bird was, in fact, an epaulet oriole – a common new world bird species – but the photographer had asked an AI platform to make the picture “look better”, which is when parts of the red-winged blackbird were added, resulting in the false sighting.
Bro just post the picture you actually took, that represents the experience you actually had. I don’t really understand the way it feels like many relate to photos. It feels like many people want the photo to be better than the actual experience, rather than something that represents the experience even if the photo is flawed
I can somehow relate to the issue. I am NOT a photographer, I can’t even adjust focus on non-phone cameras for a family picture. But when I made the yearly family photo calendar, Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom had easily accessible functions to make the calendar pop more (five to ten years ago). Now, I can see the attraction to ”clarifying” tools, but just as any other applications in society, we need to view this more critically and not just be amazed by how much more AI slop makes our work pop . We will always be amazed by something that seems like unreal or surreal.
I naively never realised how this would expand to research beyond our shallow social media.
Another case of good intentions (providing higher quality pictures) led astray by the deception and hype surrounding this technology. I somehow find it more heartbreaking to see well-meaning people fall for the bullshit than all the malicious executives looking to save money.
