Nikon Strikes Back at AI

There's no question that the world, and image creators in particular, have grown obsessed with AI imaging.  One has only to look at the fantastic popularity of such apps as DALL-E 2, Stable Diffusion, and Midjourney to see that world of imaging has changed forever.  Seemingly overnight the ability to generate complex images from simple text prompts has taken hold of the public imagination as have very few technical advances before it.

And exactly what is AI-generative imaging?  If one were to search for a brief functional definition, one of my own that might do quite well is "digital photography without the camera."  However oversimplified, I believe this cuts right to the heart of what AI-generative imaging apps are offering their users.  It's no surprise then that camera manufacturers are taking note and responding, perhaps a bit fearfully, to this latest challenge to their dominance.

For one example, one need look no further than Nikon, the world's preeminent camera manufacturer ever since it took hold of the SLR market at the end of the 1950's with the introduction of the redoubtable Nikon F that quickly became the camera of choice for virtually every professional photographer the world over.  If Nikon's reputation were ever in doubt in the mirrorless age, any misgivings have been laid to rest once and for all with the recent release first of the Z9 and now the Z8.

So how is Nikon responding to the threat to its business posed by AI imaging?  A quote from a brief video makes its answer quite clear:

"This obsession with the artificial is making us forget that our world is full of amazing natural places that are often stranger than fiction."

And this puts in a nutshell the choice now facing content creators, Nikon users or not, and that is whether to capture the real world around them with camera in hand, or to create new worlds limited only by the extent of their imaginations.  There is no right choice here.  The decision depends on a given individual's unique proclivities.  For myself, though I began my career as a film photographer almost a half century ago, I've been drawn increasingly to the possibilities offered by the AI-generative apps listed above.  They bring to mind the famous Aldous Huxley quote that became the mantra of the psychedelic 1960's: "There are things known and there are things unknown, and in between are the doors of perception."