We have repeatedly said that artificial intelligence in photography will continue to harm the very principles of the medium it was built on—to document reality as it happens—and quite recently, we have been proven right. While AI-generated images are invading our private and public lives, as well as our democracy, they are also now altering our history. And I am not talking about those AI-generated videos of human giants building the pyramid, but an event much closer to human history: D-Day. AI artist Phillip Toledano “extended” what the day may have looked like.
All images in the article are screenshots from Phillip Toledano’s Instagram page.
D-Day is Just The Beginning
The truly horrifying moment is when AI artist Philip Toledano believes that Robert Capa’s images need an extension in the first place. For the unversed, Capa shot rolls of film on the battleground, but due to the mistake at the developing labs, only 11 photographs survived. Surely, this is unfortunate because we have missed out on some of the most historic images of the time. But there is only so much that can be done.
However, now that artificial intelligence is available, Toledano thinks it is perfectly okay to reimagine what would have happened if the film had not been damaged. Titled We Are War, the project is the artist’s “continued exploration of historical surrealism – working with AI.” On his Instagram, Toledano states: “The very existence of AI has rendered both history and facts infinitely elastic. Simultaneously, everything is true, and nothing is true. We are at a cultural turning point -our relationship with the image, and the idea of image as truth -has fundamentally changed.” But it doesn’t end there; the next part is even more scary. “What better way to illustrate this than by convincingly reinventing one of the most significant moments of our own near history?”
Thus, the images, created to appear like a contact sheet, depict the days before D-Day, the event itself, and its aftermath. In another post, Toledano reveals that the project has been developed as a book designed to resemble a newspaper. This was also showcased at the Deauville Photography Festival. His reasoning for choosing Capa is that the work itself is “divisive” and “revered.” “We can so convincingly reinvent the past, imagine what we can do with the present,” he said in another post. If this project succeeds, then Capa is just the beginning of an avalanche of sub-par work ready to prove the “post-truth” theory correct.
Fabricating History And Then Selling It is Not Art
The work has been widely appreciated and criticized. While people applaud how Talendo’s work pushes us to not accept images at their face value, some people think that selling AI-generated work, which is a cheap rip-off of actual photographs, is even more troubling. Appreciation is troubling as the idea has been passed on to death. For instance, Boris Eldagsen already drove this point at the Sony World Awards. So, doing something similar but tampering with historical work and then selling it is just problematic. As for the latter opinion, I second that. We already live in a troubled time, and a job like this contributes to the debate about AI and the rise of xenophobia, racism, and discrimination. Look at the political campaigns run by Trump.
But beyond that, Toledano’s series does exactly the opposite of what Capa set out to do: remind you of the horrors of war. The images can never replicate the sorrow of World War II when millions lost their lives. This is also why a work like this should never be touched in the first place. Social media has numbed our senses, and seeing poorly AI-fabricated work is distasteful and dishonoring to the photographer. It also will lead people to question history together and further lead people to mold facts to push their propaganda. Imagine if people started questioning the suffrage movement and just erased its history?
As a world, we are simply slipping back into dark times instead of moving forward. AI-generated images and content are like the burning of the Library of Alexandria. This marked the beginning of the dark age of ignorance and advancement. As French critic Jacques Derrida once wrote: “There is no political power without power over the archive.” Similarly, if we can freely temper with recorded facts, and for the sake of “art,” we are simply pushing ourselves to the edge of a cliff. And this must be stopped as soon as possible before we regret the very things we despise to become: a dystopian society.