Belgian photojournalist Carl De Keyzer faced massive criticism after the release of his book Putin’s Dream. He was accused by some of creating false visuals and spreading misinformation because he used generative AI to create the photos.
After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine disrupted airspace, Keyzer couldn’t travel anymore and chose to use generative artificial intelligence (AI) to produce a series of photographs about Russia. The AI-generated photos of Russia were included in his book Putin’s Dream, which was released in November.
Creating Putin’s Dream
To create the AI photos series, De Keyzer used real photos of Russia. Apparently, he visited Russia twelve times in a single year during the late 1980s. During the last days of the USSR, De Keyzer took pictures of the customs that would soon be lost. He has more photos from inside the prison camps in Siberia, which were taken in the 2000s.
De Keyzer uploaded his own photos from the 80s and 2000s into an AI software. He then modified the output to fit his aesthetic preferences, and produced the Putin’s Dream series, The photojournalist explained that the usage of generative AI as a tool was for reflecting on the atrocities of the war in Ukraine, which was essentially the result of one man’s imagination.
De Keyzer, who is pleased with the outcome, claims that the new visuals he has included in Putin’s Dream are a reflection of his earlier photography, which frequently examined power structures and propaganda.
The artist sought to produce realistic AI-generated photos while fusing his trademark comedy, surrealism, and irony. His Instagram post announcing Putin’s Dream was met with scathing criticism despite his openness about utilizing AI. Many people called the photographs “fake,” but he also received some good feedback applauding the creative approach to photography.
Magnum Photos, an international photographic cooperative, faced criticism as well since De Keyzer is a part of it. A week after, Magnum published a response on its website. “Magnum Photos respects and values the creative freedom of our photographers, supporting their diverse explorations and perspectives.”
Other Magnum members like Jonas Bendiksen and Michael Christopher Brown have been experimenting with AI-generated photos.
De Keyzer isn’t the only artist who faced backlash for using AI. Boris Eldagsen experienced criticism too, after winning the Sony World Photography Prize with an AI image.
People create 34 million AI images daily
Between 2022 and 2023, text-to-image AI algorithms produced over 15 billion images. An average of 34 million photos have been created every day since the debut of DALLE-2. Adobe Firefly, a collection of AI algorithms integrated into Adobe Photoshop, is the product with the quickest rate of growth. Within three months of its introduction, it had produced one billion photographs.
Midjourney has the highest number of users, with 15 million members, compared to other image generation platforms. In contrast, 30 million people use Adobe Creative Cloud, which includes graphic design and video editing tools, such as the generative AI tool Adobe Firefly.
Roughly 80% of the photos, or 12.59 billion, were produced using open-source LLM models, platforms, and apps based on Stable Diffusion.
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