A family photo meant to honor a distant relative created frustration for a family member after a photographer charged for an "enhancement" that many viewers thought looked worse than the original high-quality scan.
The black-and-white image appeared to gain the sort of warped details many people now associate with careless AI image generation.
Here's what to know
In a Reddit post on r/MildlyInfuriating, the original poster wrote, "A $110 'photo enhancement job' used AI and it messed up several parts of the photo." They explained that their dad already had "a very high quality scan" of a photo of their great uncle but still paid a photographer $110 to improve it.
The OP said the revised image was "sharper [in] some areas and a deeper black and white," but it also came back with several mistakes that they found annoyingly similar to AI-generated images. This included bizarrely-shaped fingers and a warped look to their great uncle's shoes.
Beyond the frustration of AI downgrading the quality of the photo, the OP was also frustrated that their father was taken advantage of and paid for photo enhancements that seem to be run through ChatGPT, as one commenter speculated. They wrote, "As a photographer / editor myself, this does not look like the standard AI-enhancing tools that exist on the market (e.g. Adobe's upscaling and other tools)."
"This isn't even a case of someone thinking what they're doing is worth $110, it's just a straight up scam," another commenter wrote.
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"Nothing about the 'enhanced version' is enhanced," a third person added.
What can be done?
In the replies, the clearest advice was to challenge the service that the so-called photographer provided.
"Unless it was disclosed to you that they would be using AI, you should demand a 100% refund," one commenter suggested.
Another urged, "Demand a refund, he clearly scammed your dad."
The OP responded to another comment, "My dad is buddies with the photographer who did it, and he is either intentionally overlooking the issues or he just didn't look that close … I do photo colorization, so I'm hoping that if I can do a good colorization on the original scan I can convince him to hang that up instead."
This just goes to show that, even before you hire a human artist, it may be important to ask for transparency about their artistic practices.
Where can I learn more?
This kind of backlash tends to flare up when AI tools distort familiar images instead of improving them.
• Aardman fans blasted awful images of iconic claymation characters after an AI remaster dulled Wallace and Gromit.
• In Thessaloniki, Greece, officials urged riders to check important information after a disturbing metro image spread online.
• A viral monkey selfie set a precedent for an AI copyright dispute as technology blurred authorship lines.
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