Last spring I was asked to write a piece with tips on how to suss out AI-generated images. I countered that that premise weakens democracy by promoting the idea that everyone can claim expertise regardless of their credentials, a key tenet of anti-democratic technoutopianism. What strikes me now…1/n - ThreadSky

sonjadrimmer.bsky.social • 7 days ago

Last spring I was asked to write a piece with tips on how to suss out AI-generated images. I countered that that premise weakens democracy by promoting the idea that everyone can claim expertise regardless of their credentials, a key tenet of anti-democratic technoutopianism. What strikes me now…1/n

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sonjadrimmer.bsky.social•7 days ago

is how common the alternative view is/was. Both print and internet media were awash with little pieces and listicles instructing people how to detect faked images, a massive, society-wide turn from journalistic authority that perpetuated this false notion of the "democratization" of expertise. 2/n

sonjadrimmer.bsky.social•7 days ago

As I was writing that piece I remember thinking to myself, "the very idea of supporting journalistic expertise and integrity has come to sound naive and feckless today and that's not a problem with the principle; it's a problem with what has achieved the status of common sense today." 3

avivavbrueckner.bsky.social•7 days ago

I think this problem is closely connected to the false understanding of freedom of expression. Freedom of expression was meant as a tool to protect truthful, risky speech b/c tyranny is born of lies and it's only facts on which standards should be build that create slivers of shared reality. It was

avivavbrueckner.bsky.social•7 days ago

never meant to protect people spreading lies. Facts are based on expertise, the work of exploration that results in new knowledge. Exploration is only possible in cooperation that overcomes the insurmountable risk that random searches pose for the individual. The results of exploration are not pre-

avivavbrueckner.bsky.social•7 days ago

dictable and thus can't be siphoned off by the few. They need people to exploit a small set of existing knowledge. So, the need people to believe that thereare no facts/truth to be found in exploration as they don't exist. Truth itself is the biggest of all lies.

sonjadrimmer.bsky.social•7 days ago

Anyway, I am glad that the editor at Art in America let me write the piece I wanted to write. If you'd like to read it in full, you can find it here: https://www.artnews.com/art-in-america/columns/ai-generated-images-paranoia-misinformation-art-historians-provenance-1234715037/

andrew-varnon.bsky.social•7 days ago

That’s an awesome piece! Thanks for writing it! And sharing!

jelizachapman.bsky.social•7 days ago

Thank you for sharing and for writing this piece!

sonjadrimmer.bsky.social•7 days ago

As a general rule, I would say that most things we are being told to believe are technology issues are actually civics issues. 5/5

benwurgaft.bsky.social•7 days ago

reminds me of Winner's "do artifacts have politics!"

sonjadrimmer.bsky.social•7 days ago

That's so funny! I was just reading about this article yesterday, which I'm ashamed to admit I've never read.

alanhay68.bsky.social•7 days ago

I get this and agree about erosion of expertise, but isn’t this different to yr lettuce analogy? More like advising people how to spot financial scams? We still need experts, regulation, consequences for breach, but also worthwhile explaining to people what scams look like and how to avoid them?

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