Using artificial intelligence ethically

AI-powered tools in photo-editing software can be a blessing to photographers. James Abbott demonstrates a more ethical approach to AI to save time and to simplify complex manual tasks

- James Abbott

The use of artificial intelligence in photo editing may be a contentious issue, but it’s safe to say that it’s here to stay. While most ethical questions surrounding the use of AI in photography centre on the creation of entire images, most of the AI-powered tools available in photo editing software are pretty much benign when it comes to the question of ethics and authenticity.

At this point, you may be wondering where we’re heading because surely any use of AI goes against the veracity of photography, but there’s an extremely simple argument here. Not to mention, one that includes the use of Photoshop’s Generative Fill feature in a specific way. I don’t want to get bogged down in the AI debate so we can cast that aside, and some of this was covered in an interview in the Christmas issue of AP with the Italian photographer Andrea Pizzini who creates incredible images of Sony cameras using AI.

The majority of AI-powered tools in editing software are designed to save time and typically make complex tasks easier to achieve. They’re not there to trick, cheat or anything else, they’re both practical and powerful in equal measure. Photoshop has been gradually growing in this area with many tools now at the disposal of photographers, ranging from intelligent selection refinement to special effects to cloning and much more. Most, if not all of the results of these tools can be achieved in more manual time-consuming ways, so I would argue that taking advantage of them is most often a wise decision.

Photoshop is an AI powerhouse