When AI Starts Choosing What We See
Photography has always been about seeing.
Not just looking, but actually seeing.
Seeing something other people might walk past. Seeing the potential in an ordinary street, an old building, a reflection in a puddle or a patch of light falling across a wall. That's one of the things I love about photography.
You don't necessarily need an amazing location to create an amazing photograph.
Sometimes you just need to look at an ordinary place in a different way.
But I wonder if that is about to change.
As Artificial Intelligence becomes increasingly involved in cameras, smartphones, editing software and wearable technology, are we heading towards a future where AI doesn't just help us take photographs, but actually starts deciding what is worth photographing?
From Taking Photographs to Finding Photographs
Think about how much technology already does for us.
Modern cameras can recognise faces and eyes, track subjects, calculate exposure and predict movement.
Mobile phones combine multiple exposures, sharpen details, reduce noise and make decisions about colour, contrast and dynamic range before we even see the finished photograph.
Editing software can now remove objects, extend backgrounds, improve lighting and make complicated adjustments that would once have taken considerable skill and time.
AI is becoming part of almost every stage of photography.
And I think the next stage could be even more interesting.
What if AI chooses the photograph?
"These are your ten strongest photographs."
It could judge sharpness, composition, exposure, facial expressions, lighting and even similarities to photographs you have previously selected.
That sounds incredibly useful and it probably will be.
But it raises an interesting question:
What does AI think makes a photograph good?
What Happens When AI Knows Your Taste?
AI could eventually learn how you photograph. It might discover that you like dramatic skies. Perhaps it learns that you prefer strong colours, unusual compositions, reflections or particular types of light. Over time, it could become remarkably good at predicting which photographs you are likely to choose.
That's potentially exciting.
But it also means that AI isn't simply sorting your photographs anymore.
It is beginning to influence your creative decisions.
And that's where I think we need to be careful.
What About AI Glasses?
This is where the future gets particularly fascinating.
Imagine walking through a city wearing AI-enabled glasses. You don't even need to take your phone or camera out.
The glasses are constantly seeing what you see
.
They understand the location.
They recognise landmarks.
They analyse the light.
They know the weather.
They might even know what types of photographs are currently popular.
Then, as you approach a viewpoint, the system could recognise:
This is the best composition.
Perhaps it could tell you where to stand.
Perhaps it could suggest that you wait thirty seconds for the light.
Perhaps it could automatically capture the moment when everything comes together.
Eventually, you might not even press the shutter. The AI could decide that this is the photograph.
That's an extraordinary possibility.
But it also makes me wonder:
Who actually took the photograph?
The Influencer Effect
There is another part of this that concerns me.
Photography is already heavily influenced by social media. We increasingly photograph experiences rather than simply things.
Look where I am.
Look what I'm doing.
Look at this amazing place.
The photograph becomes part of the experience and, sometimes, the experience becomes secondary to getting the photograph.
I can imagine AI making this even more powerful.
Imagine an AI that knows which viewpoints receive the most attention online.
It could suggest:
Go here.
Stand here.
Wait until this time.
Use this composition.
This is the shot people will like.
Suddenly, everybody has the perfect photograph of the same location. Perhaps that is where photography could start to lose something.
The Problem With the Perfect Photograph
If AI becomes incredibly good at identifying what makes a photograph visually appealing, it could eventually become very good at creating safe photographs.
Beautiful sunsets.
Perfect landscapes.
Perfect portraits.
Perfect symmetry.
Perfect lighting.
Perfect compositions.
But some of my favourite photographs aren't perfect.
They're unusual.
They're sometimes technically flawed.
They might be slightly underexposed, slightly blurred or composed in a way that doesn't immediately make sense.
That's often what makes them interesting and Photography has never been entirely about perfection.
It's about interpretation.
The Beauty of the Mundane
One of the things I think we mustn't lose is the ability to find beauty in ordinary places. You don't need to travel halfway around the world to take a great photograph.
Look out of your window.
Walk down your own street.
Visit somewhere you've been a hundred times.
Look at the light.
Look at the shadows.
Look at reflections.
Look at the people.
Look at the details you've stopped noticing because you've become familiar with them.
There is photography everywhere and the challenge is learning to see it. Perhaps that is something AI will never completely be able to do for us.
It can analyse an image.
It can compare it with millions of other images.
It can recognise patterns.
It can predict what people might like.
But you have lived your experience.
You know why a particular place matters.
You know why a particular moment caught your attention.
You know what you felt when you pressed the shutter.
That is something very different from analysing pixels.
The Photographer Could Become More Important, Not Less
This might sound strange, but I actually think AI could make the photographer more important.
If AI eventually handles focus, exposure, sorting, editing and even capturing the decisive moment, then the technical operation of the camera becomes less important.
What becomes more important is vision.
What do you want to photograph?
Why?
What are you trying to communicate?
What makes you stop and look?
What makes your photograph different from everybody else's?
Those questions become increasingly important when the technology becomes increasingly capable.
Shooting With Intent
This is why I keep coming back to the idea of shooting with intent. Don't just take photographs because you're standing somewhere interesting. Think about what you want to create.
Look at the scene.
Consider the light.
Move around.
Change your viewpoint.
Wait.
Try something different.
Then take the photograph because you have made a decision.
That's very different from simply pointing a camera at something and allowing AI to find the best frame afterwards.
AI can help you.
It can suggest.
It can analyse.
It can recommend.
But I don't think we should give it the final say.
You Still Make the Final Decision
This, for me, is the most important part of the whole discussion.
You still make the final decision.
AI might tell you:
"This is technically the best photograph."
You might disagree.
AI might tell you:
"This photograph is likely to receive the most engagement."
You might not care.
AI might recommend the perfect composition.
You might deliberately choose something completely different.
That's absolutely fine because photography isn't a competition to produce the photograph that an algorithm thinks is best.
It's about producing your photograph.
The Future Isn't About Human Versus AI
I don't think we should be frightened of all of this technology. There are enormous possibilities.
AI could help photographers spend less time sorting and processing photographs and more time actually taking them.
It could make photography more accessible.
It could help people understand their cameras.
It could help us discover photographs we might otherwise have missed.
It could even encourage people to explore new places and new ways of seeing.
But I hope we don't allow convenience to replace curiosity.
I hope we don't reach a point where we simply follow the instructions:
Best location.
Best viewpoint.
Best light.
Best composition.
Best photograph.
Because if everybody follows the same instructions, eventually everybody gets the same photograph.
The Future Photographer
Perhaps the photographer of the future won't be the person who knows every camera setting. They will be the person who knows what they want to say. The camera will become smarter and in partnership so will the software.
AI will become smarter with wearable technology becoming even more popular. But the ability to look at something ordinary and think:
"There's a photograph here."
That is something I hope we never lose.
Because ultimately, photography isn't really about the camera.
It isn't about Photoshop.
It isn't about AI.
It's about seeing.
And while AI might help us capture what we see, I still want the photographer to decide what is worth seeing in the first place.
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