AI is for the birds

What's wrong with this picture?

With campaign season here, it’s especially important to separate fact from fiction, reality from fantasy, and the truth from falsehoods. AI has made it easy for anyone to create whatever image they dream up. This problem seems especially pronounced when it comes to the natural world. There’s all manner of Facebook accounts said up just to dupe people and get likes and follows.

So you might get an image like this one, that shows an adult Bald Eagle with two “eaglets.”

If you think that actual eaglets look like those in the photo, well then I have some swampland in Florida to sell you.

As someone commented on the above, ‘you need to be able to discern and differentiate reality. You need to know how the world works on a basic level. Because fooling you with baby animals and flowers is just the start of something much worse.’ Amen. I’d have a distorted picture of the world if I believed everything I saw in my social media feeds.

Here’s another one. The Capercaillie is a grouse species found in some sections of Eurasia. These are relatively large birds, at least 30 inches or more. But when this image randomly appeared in my feed (thanks, Zuck), I raised an eyebrow.

Birds aren’t like hogs, cows, or even cats. When you go to the state fair, there aren’t pens full of champion oversized chickens or gigantic Greylag Geese. So needless to say, no Capercaillie, or Ostrich, Emu, Whooping Crane, or California Condor has ever been as large as the fake in the above photo.

In this image we see a cardinal-like bird that clearly has the face, bill, and eyes of a domestic chicken. It’s a stunning achievement, just not in the way presumed by the thousands who loved and commented on it in the Metaverse.

Faking birds isn’t the only topic for the content farms playing Facebook’s algorithms. Here’s an image of the “Chicago skyline” with Buckingham Fountain in the foreground. This one had me a little dizzy as the placement of the buildings, the lake, and the fountain is all wrong. Buckingham Fountain is just west of Lake Michigan, between the lake and the skyline. Here it’s somewhere north of downtown, portions of which have been turned 90 degrees.

The *only* thing giving me hope when seeing this schlock is that society has been through this before. Tall tales, trick photos, and hoaxes have all been around for a long, long time, and we’ve mostly made it through unscathed. Just check out this photo postcard from the early 20th century, found in the collections of Chicago’s Newberry Library.

An early example of Photoshopping, from a poultry show in turn-of-the-century Missouri.

In all seriousness, all we can do in response to the AI era is stay true to the facts and clear up misinformation. One way of doing this is supporting news organizations, especially local news organizations that have taken a hit for decades. Another is reducing our time spent on social media and engaging people in real life. The alternative of AI truly run amok is a worrisome phenomena to ponder.

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Golden year

American Goldfinches are late nesters, and a family of two adults and four juveniles has been visiting regularly. They are particularly fond of cup plant, but they also have sampled coneflower, evening primrose, and bee balm. The finches use their feet to grab the cup plant and hold it in place. Then they wrench seeds out with their bills. It’s been an enjoyable phenomena and not one observed in this parcel of the Lake Border Upland recently.

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TWiB Notes

A Winter Wren in Chicago’s LaBagh Woods. TWiB file photo.

There have been so many potential TWiB Notes lately, it’s been hard to keep up. Block Club Chicago had a wonderful feature on our friends at LaBagh Woods and the years-long restoration going on there in the middle of urban Chicago. You might recall the senseless actions there nearly two years ago, when someone was tearing down the fences around native shrubs and trees. Chicago Ornithological Society’s (COS) begun tracking which birds utilize the native plants for nourishment and shelter. According to the story, volunteers observed 58 different species, 12 of which are considered Birds of Conservation Concern……In a stunning reversal, Riot Fest returned to Douglass Park last weekend. This space has shared some mixed feelings about the large multi-day music festival in the historic park. Then it was announced the fest would be headed to suburban Bridgeview a few months ago. In the end, the Chicago Park District approved Riot Fest’s permit and allowed the event to go forward in the midst of fall migration…..Lead plover volunteer Tamima Itani has been named volunteer of the year by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. Tamima, who many know as Chicago’s “plover mother,” has been leading efforts to protect the local Piping Plovers since 2019. “I fell hard for Monty and Rose, the first piping plovers I ever met, and I can now bring my love and passion to their offspring and kind,” Tamima told WTTW News……It’s the Year of the Peregrine in Chicago, and there will be a hawkwatch at Steelworkers Park on Friday morning. There’s also a debate about Chicago’s official bird on Oct. 29 and a documentary film screening on Nov. 13. Learn more about these COS events here.

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