Wildlife photography is a powerful tool for conservation of animals and their habitats. A story captured through the lens of a photographer in the field can reach someone at home thousands of kilometres away on their phone.
Depending on your algorithm, an evening scroll through Facebook can take you through dozens of beautiful photos of animals that are jam-packed with information. The perfect way to learn about our natural world, right? It seems harmless but unfortunately, the large majority of these posts are now AI-generated, en masse, for monetisation.
One year ago, most of us would have been confident that we would not be fooled by AI content.
But what if I told you now that AI has become … picture perfect. Every feather, every scale, every hair, AI content is now creating perfect replicas of species that are even fooling naturalists online.
Why is this so dangerous?
Currently, humans are more disconnected from nature than ever.
Natural areas are becoming more scarce and not everyone has the luxury of travelling to the corners of the globe looking for natural paradises that still remain. Every day, more and more species are becoming endangered.
Football fields of rainforests are still being cleared across the tropics and all of earth’s life is being sucked away for greed. The Sumatran Rhinoceros is functionally extinct, but you wouldn’t know that from the number of AI images that are being produced of them now online. In fact, you might get the impression the population is booming!
How are we going to tell what is real anymore?
AI-generated content of endangered species is so dangerous because it is going to fabricate the information we know about them, creating false narratives of occurrence, behaviours and mistakenly giving the public a sense or relief that these iconic species are still thriving.
Once upon a time, the depictions of the Gouldian Finch were even rarer than the bird itself. Indeed, it is named for the famed ornithologist who popularised the beautiful illustrations produced by his wife, Elizabeth Gould, such as the one shown below.
As someone who has dedicated their entire life to wildlife photography and bringing back stories from the wildest jungles to the public, this new wave of AI content isn’t just depressing… It’s absolutely terrifying and suffocating. As depictions of rare species become widespread, the species themselves face extinction.
It took me three years of searching to finally photograph an endangered Gouldian Finch in the wild. A moment I will never forget, seeing their rainbow colours bounce across the speargrass in the relentless savannahs of the Northern Territory brought me to tears. I couldn’t sleep that night, just continuously staring at the back of my camera in bed and grinning at one of the most special moments of my life.
You can see that photo below.
These iconic birds are now so rare that only a couple of thousand remain. A complexity of threats could see them become extinct in our lifetime. Imagine my shock when an AI account I frequently monitor posted what I consider to be a picture-perfect AI-generated photo of a Gouldian Finch.
The colours, pattern, feathers, habitat… everything was correct.
In fact, my conviction that it is AI generated arises mostly from the fact that the source has historically only posted AI content; and every third or fourth photo has a tiny discrepancy that an observant naturalist could pick out.
Do you think the hundreds of people commenting would be happy to know that the picture they were looking at was an AI-generated image of an endangered species?
My photography was once popular on Facebook, but now it struggles for any engagement as I scroll through wildlife documentary-level AI videos getting thousands of likes and fooling the public.
Whilst it may seem I am grieving for my engagement, I’m not. I’m worried about the animals out there in the real world right now. I fear the proliferation of fakes will take the wanderlust out of the search for and protection of beautiful endangered species.
Just like they have for millennia, searching for food, for mates, and now wandering aimlessly around their cleared habitat. Their struggles will silently be forgotten as the world consumes content made of lies, stolen images, and fossil fuels.
Sane people have to question the realness of everything they see online. Six months ago, I suggested that the public should only follow wildlife photographers who have a person as a profile picture to verify they were real. But AI adapts.
Now, most of these AI wildlife “photography” accounts have created a human character that features in most of their videos and photos. People connect with these faces.
Even in these difficult and uncertain times, wildlife photographers like myself will still punish our bodies in the field to bring forward new species, stories, and a relentless passion for animals. I just hope our work can continue to make a difference and help conserve and document what is left of our beautiful natural world.
Check out NLWild: Nick Volpe & Lucyna Kania Wildlife Photography to support human photography of real animals.