<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" class=""><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class="">This is, sadly, becoming more and more of a concern. It’s easy to see the good in AI, and it’s becoming easier all the time to see the bad in it.<div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Dennis Paulson</div><div class="">Seattle<br class=""><div class=""><br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class=""><div class="gmail_quote gmail_quote_container"><div dir="auto" class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div dir="ltr" class=""><div style="background-color:#ffffff" class=""><table role="presentation" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse:separate;line-height:1.5;background:#f4f1e7!important;width:100%" bgcolor="#ffffff" class=""><tbody class=""><tr class="">
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<h1 style="font-weight:bold;font-style:normal;font-size:1em;margin:0;font-size:2em;font-family:-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,sans-serif;font-size:22px;color:#595959;font-weight:700;line-height:1.5;text-align:left;margin-top:10px;margin-bottom:0" class="">Newsletter - August 2025</h1>
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<td width="640" style="vertical-align:top;background-color:#f4f1e7;border-radius:0px;box-sizing:border-box" bgcolor="#f4f1e7" class=""><div style="padding:0px 0px 0px 0px" class=""><div style="margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;max-width:640px" class=""><p style="margin:1em 0;font-family:-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,sans-serif;font-size:18px;color:#595959;font-weight:400;line-height:1.5;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0" class=""></p>
<h1 style="font-weight:bold;font-style:normal;font-size:1em;margin:0;font-size:2em;font-family:-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,sans-serif;font-size:32px;color:#595959;font-weight:700;line-height:1.5;text-align:left" class="">The Trouble With AI Bird Images</h1><p style="margin:1em 0;font-family:-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,sans-serif;font-size:18px;color:#595959;font-weight:400;line-height:1.5;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0" class=""></p><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; color: rgb(89, 89, 89); font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5;" class="">Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about photorealistic, AI-generated images of birds. Not the cartoonish ones that are easy to spot, but images that could easily be mistaken for real bird photography.</div><p style="margin:1em 0;font-family:-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,sans-serif;font-size:18px;color:#595959;font-weight:400;line-height:1.5;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0" class=""></p><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; color: rgb(89, 89, 89); font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5;" class="">My inspiration for this newsletter topic was the image below, which has made the rounds on social media:</div>
<table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" style="border-collapse:separate;line-height:1.5;text-align:center;table-layout:fixed;float:none" class=""><tbody class=""><tr class=""><td align="center" style="vertical-align:top" class=""><div style="display:block" class=""><img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfG_H2eQiGeLVloRW1H9vCdLBRY27pWCEUEupWRrg8xAe97BiYpxBuhuXkUKtsMAYIsF-r-0cJ8HlNVEX6-7of5n3W0TbLRZSPtEaFr17kMJApsuTZsxznD8mhDMnL6GtDl2uS1?key=B5-DD6lvGtTg3U4SNo2_-Q" alt="" width="544" height="auto" style="border:0 none;display:block;border:0;height:auto;line-height:100%;outline:none;text-decoration:none;max-width:100%;border-radius:4px 4px 4px 4px;width:544px;height:auto;object-fit:contain" class=""></div>
</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; color: rgb(89, 89, 89); font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5;" class="">It’s a great shot of an in-the-flesh Chestnut-backed Chickadee perched on a field guide opened to the exact page for this species. Pretty cool, right?<br class=""><br class="">Sure. Maybe… Because right away, I found myself wondering, “Is this an AI-generated image? A fake?”</div><p style="margin:1em 0;font-family:-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,sans-serif;font-size:18px;color:#595959;font-weight:400;line-height:1.5;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0" class=""></p><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; color: rgb(89, 89, 89); font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5;" class="">I was dubious.</div><p style="margin:1em 0;font-family:-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,sans-serif;font-size:18px;color:#595959;font-weight:400;line-height:1.5;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0" class=""></p><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; color: rgb(89, 89, 89); font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5;" class="">In the case of this chickadee situation, I’m fairly (though not 100%) certain it’s a real photo of a real bird. I did some research and found what I think is the original source, the person who <a href="https://click.convertkit-mail2.com/wvu07qwle9bghkwgmd2u7hn6z5zxxi8hw595m/qvh8h7hd8rvrzkbl/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cucmVkZGl0LmNvbS9yL01hZGVNZVNtaWxlL2NvbW1lbnRzLzFpbmEyeXovY29tbWVudC9tY2JkeHI0Lw==" rel="noopener noreferrer noreferrer" style="color:#0000ff" target="_blank" class="">posted it on Reddit</a>.</div><p style="margin:1em 0;font-family:-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,sans-serif;font-size:18px;color:#595959;font-weight:400;line-height:1.5;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0" class=""></p><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; color: rgb(89, 89, 89); font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5;" class="">So it took some actual work—some Internet sleuthing and too much of my valuable time—to determine if the image was real or AI-generated.</div><p style="margin:1em 0;font-family:-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,sans-serif;font-size:18px;color:#595959;font-weight:400;line-height:1.5;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0" class=""></p><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; color: rgb(89, 89, 89); font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5;" class="">I sure wish I didn’t have to go through all that trouble.</div><p style="margin:1em 0;font-family:-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,sans-serif;font-size:18px;color:#595959;font-weight:400;line-height:1.5;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0" class=""></p><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; color: rgb(89, 89, 89); font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5;" class="">A couple of years ago, AI images of birds just weren’t good enough to cause me this kind of headache. The results were strange and flawed—the body proportions were way off, the feet had too many toes, the wings bent at odd angles, the plumage patterns and colors didn’t match any real species, even with a familiar species like an American Robin. If you were using AI to generate an image of a robin, no matter how many times you tried, you’d never get an anatomically accurate representation.</div><p style="margin:1em 0;font-family:-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,sans-serif;font-size:18px;color:#595959;font-weight:400;line-height:1.5;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0" class=""></p>
<table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" style="border-collapse:separate;line-height:1.5;text-align:center;table-layout:fixed;float:none" class=""><tbody class=""><tr class=""><td align="center" style="vertical-align:top" class=""><div style="display:block" class=""><img src="https://embed.filekitcdn.com/e/hBQuubxW4JwwA2SPXdh8uZ/juC1oMehBjvCYEQ1jvUxVB/email" width="800" height="auto" style="border:0 none;display:block;border:0;height:auto;line-height:100%;outline:none;text-decoration:none;max-width:100%;border-radius:4px 4px 4px 4px;width:800px;height:auto;object-fit:contain" class=""></div>
AI-generated bird, circa 2022. Not too convincing. Thanks, I hate it.</td></tr></tbody></table><p style="margin:1em 0;font-family:-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,sans-serif;font-size:18px;color:#595959;font-weight:400;line-height:1.5;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0" class=""></p><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; color: rgb(89, 89, 89); font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5;" class="">But now, in 2025, things are different. The images are way better. Many of them are now good enough to fool even experienced birders—myself included—if we don’t slow down and look closely. And that’s why I think it’s time to talk about this issue.</div>
<h2 style="font-weight:bold;font-style:normal;font-size:1em;margin:0;font-size:1.5em;margin:1em 0;font-family:-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,sans-serif;font-size:24px;color:#595959;font-weight:700;line-height:1.5;margin-top:40px" class=""><strong class="">From Rainbow Owls to Photorealism</strong></h2><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; color: rgb(89, 89, 89); font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5;" class="">Of course, manipulated images aren’t new. Long before AI, we had heavily Photoshopped “rainbow owls” or parrots with impossible colors going viral on Facebook. To most birders, those were obvious fakes. But plenty of casual nature lovers saw them, believed them, and shared them.</div><p style="margin:1em 0;font-family:-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,sans-serif;font-size:18px;color:#595959;font-weight:400;line-height:1.5;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0" class=""></p><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; color: rgb(89, 89, 89); font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5;" class="">The difference now is that AI can (at least sometimes) produce birds that actually look <em class="">real.</em> The toes, the plumage patterns… the whole shebang. </div><p style="margin:1em 0;font-family:-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,sans-serif;font-size:18px;color:#595959;font-weight:400;line-height:1.5;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0" class=""></p>
<table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" style="border-collapse:separate;line-height:1.5;text-align:center;table-layout:fixed;float:none" class=""><tbody class=""><tr class=""><td align="center" style="vertical-align:top" class=""><div style="display:block" class=""><img src="https://embed.filekitcdn.com/e/hBQuubxW4JwwA2SPXdh8uZ/eW3i9UpP4w1xQbJwdsRzzH/email" width="800" height="auto" style="border:0 none;display:block;border:0;height:auto;line-height:100%;outline:none;text-decoration:none;max-width:100%;border-radius:4px 4px 4px 4px;width:800px;height:auto;object-fit:contain" class=""></div>
AI-generated American Robin, circa 2025. Disturbingly realistic. Even the toes are pretty good.</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; color: rgb(89, 89, 89); font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5;" class="">And now such images are flooding social media and other places we search for photos. Stock image sites are practically drowning in AI bird images these days. In the best cases, the platform requires that AI images be labeled as such. But a lot of AI slop is still slipping through the cracks and being passed off as “real.”</div><p style="margin:1em 0;font-family:-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,sans-serif;font-size:18px;color:#595959;font-weight:400;line-height:1.5;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0" class=""></p>
<table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" style="border-collapse:separate;line-height:1.5;text-align:center;table-layout:fixed;float:none" class=""><tbody class=""><tr class=""><td align="center" style="vertical-align:top" class=""><div style="display:block" class=""><img src="https://embed.filekitcdn.com/e/hBQuubxW4JwwA2SPXdh8uZ/8PwV41ok75quDhYqeXAZeL/email" width="800" height="auto" style="border:0 none;display:block;border:0;height:auto;line-height:100%;outline:none;text-decoration:none;max-width:100%;border-radius:4px 4px 4px 4px;width:800px;height:auto;object-fit:contain" class=""></div>
AI-generated image of a female Allen's Hummingbird. </td></tr></tbody></table>
<h2 style="font-weight:bold;font-style:normal;font-size:1em;margin:0;font-size:1.5em;margin:1em 0;font-family:-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,sans-serif;font-size:24px;color:#595959;font-weight:700;line-height:1.5;margin-top:40px" class=""><strong class="">How Do We Tell the Difference?</strong></h2><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; color: rgb(89, 89, 89); font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5;" class="">For now, many AI bird images still have giveaways:</div><p style="margin:1em 0;font-family:-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,sans-serif;font-size:18px;color:#595959;font-weight:400;line-height:1.5;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0" class=""></p>
<ul style="margin:1em 0;margin-left:1em;padding:0;list-style-position:outside!important;font-family:-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,sans-serif;font-size:18px;color:#595959;font-weight:400;line-height:1.5;text-align:left;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0" class=""><li style="padding:0 0 0 1em;margin:0;margin-left:1em" class=""><span class="">Anatomy or plumage patterns that are slightly “off.” (The first thing I look at is the toes.) </span></li></ul><p style="margin:1em 0;font-family:-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,sans-serif;font-size:18px;color:#595959;font-weight:400;line-height:1.5;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0" class=""></p>
<ul style="margin:1em 0;margin-left:1em;padding:0;list-style-position:outside!important;font-family:-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,sans-serif;font-size:18px;color:#595959;font-weight:400;line-height:1.5;text-align:left;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0" class=""><li style="padding:0 0 0 1em;margin:0;margin-left:1em" class=""><span class="">Birds that are too immaculately clean. No dirt or scars or mussed feathers.</span></li></ul><p style="margin:1em 0;font-family:-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,sans-serif;font-size:18px;color:#595959;font-weight:400;line-height:1.5;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0" class=""></p>
<ul style="margin:1em 0;margin-left:1em;padding:0;list-style-position:outside!important;font-family:-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,sans-serif;font-size:18px;color:#595959;font-weight:400;line-height:1.5;text-align:left;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0" class=""><li style="padding:0 0 0 1em;margin:0;margin-left:1em" class=""><span class="">Backgrounds that look melted or inconsistent or just weirdly ethereal.<br class=""></span></li></ul><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; color: rgb(89, 89, 89); font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5;" class="">Sometimes the only clue is that the image looks <em class="">too perfect.</em> Real bird photography usually has quirks—motion blur, awkward angles, imperfect lighting. When a photo looks like a flawless magazine cover every time, that in itself can be suspicious.</div><p style="margin:1em 0;font-family:-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,sans-serif;font-size:18px;color:#595959;font-weight:400;line-height:1.5;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0" class=""></p><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; color: rgb(89, 89, 89); font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5;" class="">But the technology is improving really fast. Soon AI may even learn to mimic those “imperfections,” making detection nearly impossible.</div><p style="margin:1em 0;font-family:-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,sans-serif;font-size:18px;color:#595959;font-weight:400;line-height:1.5;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0" class=""></p><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; color: rgb(89, 89, 89); font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5;" class="">There are these AI models that generate increasingly realistic images, but other models are being trained to detect those AI-generated images. It’s a robot arms race! And we don’t know which clanker team will win. Maybe detection tools will keep up. Maybe they won’t.</div><p style="margin:1em 0;font-family:-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,sans-serif;font-size:18px;color:#595959;font-weight:400;line-height:1.5;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0" class=""></p><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; color: rgb(89, 89, 89); font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5;" class="">At some point, soon, we’ll need help from the platforms themselves—Meta, X, Instagram, TikTok—to use technology to label AI content automatically… Without just trusting in the “honor system,” which is how things are now. If something is artificially generated, we deserve to know before mistaking it for something from the real world.</div>
<h2 style="font-weight:bold;font-style:normal;font-size:1em;margin:0;font-size:1.5em;margin:1em 0;font-family:-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,sans-serif;font-size:24px;color:#595959;font-weight:700;line-height:1.5;margin-top:40px" class=""><strong class="">Why It Matters</strong></h2><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; color: rgb(89, 89, 89); font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5;" class="">This isn’t just an annoyance for bird lovers who want to see <em class="">real</em> birds. There are deeper concerns:</div><p style="margin:1em 0;font-family:-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,sans-serif;font-size:18px;color:#595959;font-weight:400;line-height:1.5;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0" class=""></p>
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<li style="padding:0 0 0 1em;margin:0;margin-left:1em" class=""><span class=""><strong class="">Citizen Science</strong>: eBird and iNaturalist rely on real images to document species distributions and support conservation. Fake images could skew the data and introduce "noise."<br class=""></span></li>
<li style="padding:0 0 0 1em;margin:0;margin-left:1em" class=""><span class=""><strong class="">Faltering Trust in Media</strong>: If we can’t tell what’s real, do we just assume all digital media is fake? This issue is, of course, much wider and more sinister than what's going on with just bird images.</span></li>
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<li style="padding:0 0 0 1em;margin:0;margin-left:1em" class=""><span class=""><strong class="">Undercutting Real Artists</strong>: Because AI-generated bird photos can be cranked out by the thousands almost effortlessly and almost for free, this threatens the careers of talented, hard-working nature photographers.<br class=""></span></li>
<li style="padding:0 0 0 1em;margin:0;margin-left:1em" class=""><span class=""><strong class="">Devaluing Reality</strong>: If people are constantly exposed to flawless, fantasy birds, will they become underwhelmed by the real thing? For kids who grow up consuming this kind of media, this could weaken their appreciation of actual flesh-and-blood wildlife.<br class=""></span></li>
</ul><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; color: rgb(89, 89, 89); font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5;" class="">I think about this in the same way I think about junk food. If what we eat day after day is heavily-processed junk food full of sugar, fat, and salt, we might have a hard time appreciating real food that’s actually good for us. Similarly, AI can create images that might be more colorful, more dramatic, and more enticing than photos of real birds. But like junk food, they risk dulling our taste for the real, soul-sustaining thing.</div>
<h2 style="font-weight:bold;font-style:normal;font-size:1em;margin:0;font-size:1.5em;margin:1em 0;font-family:-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,sans-serif;font-size:24px;color:#595959;font-weight:700;line-height:1.5;margin-top:40px" class=""><strong class="">The Bigger Picture: Authenticity</strong></h2><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; color: rgb(89, 89, 89); font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5;" class="">This problem isn’t limited to bird photos, of course. AI is generating ever more convincing text, video, music, and voices too. </div><p style="margin:1em 0;font-family:-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,sans-serif;font-size:18px;color:#595959;font-weight:400;line-height:1.5;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0" class=""></p><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; color: rgb(89, 89, 89); font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5;" class="">For example, it would be fairly easy right now to produce an AI-driven “bird podcast”—with AI doing all the work: writing the script and generating a realistic voice to read it.</div><p style="margin:1em 0;font-family:-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,sans-serif;font-size:18px;color:#595959;font-weight:400;line-height:1.5;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0" class=""></p><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; color: rgb(89, 89, 89); font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5;" class="">Would it sound believable? To many listeners, yeah probably. Would it be authentic? No way, José!</div><p style="margin:1em 0;font-family:-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,sans-serif;font-size:18px;color:#595959;font-weight:400;line-height:1.5;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0" class=""></p><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; color: rgb(89, 89, 89); font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5;" class="">And this is where I find some hope. I think I have some job security as a podcaster. Because the quirks of being human—the dumb (and unquestionably clever and hilarious) jokes, the personal anecdotes, the consistent thread of one real person speaking to you across years worth of episodes—those are things AI can’t replicate convincingly. Not yet… Hopefully not ever.</div><p style="margin:1em 0;font-family:-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,sans-serif;font-size:18px;color:#595959;font-weight:400;line-height:1.5;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0" class=""></p><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; color: rgb(89, 89, 89); font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5;" class="">Which means <em class="">authenticity </em>is going to matter more than ever. People will crave it. They’ll value real voices, real experiences, and real encounters with the natural world.</div><p style="margin:1em 0;font-family:-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,sans-serif;font-size:18px;color:#595959;font-weight:400;line-height:1.5;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0" class=""><br class=""></p><div class=""><strong class="" style="color: rgb(89, 89, 89); font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, sans-serif; font-size: 24px;">What We Can Do</strong></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; color: rgb(89, 89, 89); font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5;" class="">So where does all this leave us?</div><p style="margin:1em 0;font-family:-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,sans-serif;font-size:18px;color:#595959;font-weight:400;line-height:1.5;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0" class=""></p><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; color: rgb(89, 89, 89); font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5;" class="">Well, unfortunately, we need to be more skeptical than ever before. Like the example of me questioning the reality of that Chestnut-backed Chickadee photo.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; color: rgb(89, 89, 89); font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5;" class="">Other things we can do…</div><p style="margin:1em 0;font-family:-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,sans-serif;font-size:18px;color:#595959;font-weight:400;line-height:1.5;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0" class=""></p>
<ul style="margin:1em 0;margin-left:1em;padding:0;list-style-position:outside!important;font-family:-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,sans-serif;font-size:18px;color:#595959;font-weight:400;line-height:1.5;text-align:left;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0" class="">
<li style="padding:0 0 0 1em;margin:0;margin-left:1em" class=""><span class=""><strong class="">Sharpen our own eyes</strong>: Learn to spot the “field marks” of AI images just like we learn the field marks of birds. Spend time studying real photos and illustrations, so you become very familiar with bird anatomy.<br class=""></span></li>
<li style="padding:0 0 0 1em;margin:0;margin-left:1em" class=""><span class=""><strong class="">Rely on trusted sources</strong>: Reputable outlets like <em class="">National Geographic</em>, <em class="">PBS</em>, and the <em class="">BBC</em>. As well as respected photographers and scientific publications. Investigate the source of the image if you can. Legitimate wildlife photographers typically have portfolios, social media histories, and can provide additional shots from the same session. Be suspicious of social media accounts that share only "perfect" bird photos without any biological context, behind-the-scenes content, or variation in quality.<br class=""></span></li>
<li style="padding:0 0 0 1em;margin:0;margin-left:1em" class=""><span class=""><strong class="">Push for transparency</strong>: Speak up and demand that platforms require disclosure of AI content.<br class=""></span></li>
<li style="padding:0 0 0 1em;margin:0;margin-left:1em" class=""><span class=""><strong class="">Seek authenticity</strong>: If you can’t trust images and other media, you can place more value on having direct experiences in nature. And you can follow creators who are clearly, undeniably human. Like me! 😉<br class=""></span></li>
</ul><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; color: rgb(89, 89, 89); font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5;" class="">We’re entering a weird new world, my friends. If we care about birds, nature, and truth, we’ll need to adapt. But maybe this will push us to appreciate and value the real stuff even more.</div><p style="margin:1em 0;font-family:-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,sans-serif;font-size:18px;color:#595959;font-weight:400;line-height:1.5;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0" class=""></p><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; color: rgb(89, 89, 89); font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5;" class="">All the best and all the birds,</div><p style="margin:1em 0;font-family:-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,sans-serif;font-size:18px;color:#595959;font-weight:400;line-height:1.5;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0" class=""></p><div style="margin: 0px; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; color: rgb(89, 89, 89); font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5;" class="">Ivan</div>
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<td width="10%" style="vertical-align:top;background-size:cover;background-position:center;border-radius:0px;box-sizing:border-box;vertical-align:top" class=""><div style="padding:0px 0px 0px 0px" class=""><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" style="border-collapse:separate;line-height:1.5;text-align:center;table-layout:fixed;float:none" class=""><tbody class=""><tr class=""><td align="center" style="vertical-align:top" class=""><div style="display:block" class=""><img src="https://embed.filekitcdn.com/e/hBQuubxW4JwwA2SPXdh8uZ/aaJPRdc7KqKCJidsh7vZtW" alt="avatar" width="100" height="auto" style="border:0 none;display:block;border:0;height:auto;line-height:100%;outline:none;text-decoration:none;max-width:100%;border-radius:50px 50px 50px 50px;width:100px;height:auto;object-fit:contain" class=""></div></td></tr></tbody></table></div></td>
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<td width="90%" style="vertical-align:top;background-size:cover;background-position:center;border-radius:0px;box-sizing:border-box;vertical-align:top" class=""><div style="padding:0px 0px 0px 7px" class="">
<h3 style="font-weight:bold;font-style:normal;font-size:1em;margin:0;font-size:1.17em;margin:1em 0;font-family:-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,sans-serif;font-size:24px;color:#2d9689;font-weight:400;line-height:1.5;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0" class="">Ivan Phillipsen</h3><p style="margin:1em 0;font-family:-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,sans-serif;font-size:14px;color:#4d4d4d;font-weight:400;line-height:1.5;margin-top:1px;margin-bottom:8px" class="">Creator and Host of <em class="">The Science of Birds</em></p>
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