Is it unethical to use AI to talk about how AI is awful?

Yes. Probably.

I won’t do that. But I did think about it for a split second.

I’ve been wanting to write about this for a while, and I can already tell that it’s going to take all of my willpower and discipline - which I already don’t have much of - to rein in my thoughts to this one specific subject. I’ll talk about the ethics, the loss of critical thinking skill, and the boring (…ness? Is boringness a word? Likely not.) of it all later. Or maybe I won’t.

Also, as our first aside, I am a college educated adult who graduated with a degree in a language/writing related field and I did not know that em dashes actually existed until chatGPT, and I gotta say.. as a previous parenthesis lover – I friggin’ love them.

Ok, our one specific subject today is AI headshots, and I promise you I will not even touch AI while writing this blog post. You’ll be able to tell. (Did I use AI to help me with the redesign of my website? Yes, so sue me. It’s the future or whatever. 🙄 )

See how out of order and chaotic this already is?! I love that about humans.

Anyway…

Today (I started writing this blog months ago, so this timeline is already way out of order), I was told that headshot photographers are going to start losing out to AI, so I need to start diversifying my income ASAP.

It’s the future or whatever… I get it.

I need to say something, though.

Your AI headshots do not look like you.

Why don’t they look like you?

Well, for one — and you’re gonna be mad at me for saying this — but it’s because your selfies also don’t look like you. So, when you generate an image to look like you by using an image that doesn’t really look like you, you’re gonna get a new image that — you guessed it! — doesn’t really look like you. Maybe it looks like how you imagine you look. That’s the fun thing about selfies, right? We take them at exactly the right angle so that everything we hate about ourselves just vanishes. And since it’s a close up with a very wide lens, it makes our faces look all skinny and angular. Oooh, we love that.

Did you see this post when I was still active on TikTok? This is a really good example of how different lenses distort our faces.

Distortion aside, your selfies are also a mirror image of your face. So, anyone who actually knows you well and sees you on a regular basis, will notice something is just a bit off with your new “headshot.” It’s because your face is in reverse. Most people won’t notice that part, because most of your selfies are probably already posted that way, but typically professional images won’t be in reverse.

Ok, Ashley, those technical details don’t even really matter, you say. People don’t pay that much attention to my photos, you say.

And you’re probably right, these AI generated headshots will probably work just fine.

But, there’s still something just off about your AI headshot. The almost fake smile. The uncanny valley of it all. AI can’t really capture your emotions. It captures the likeness of your physical face, but it doesn’t capture the intricacies of your expressions. The way your mouth and eyes move when you’re really happy, or annoyed, or curious. Only a real human photographer can do that.. (at least at this point).

UGH, but I look better in the AI headshot, Ashley. Why are you yucking my yum?!

Bro, listen. A headshot is supposed to LOOK LIKE YOU. The entire point of a headshot is so people know who they’re looking for when they’re meeting with you. Why are we trying to catfish our clients? It doesn’t make no dang sense, guys.

A real photo of my face.

AI GENERATED——————AI GENERATED——————AI GENERATED

A better, but still slightly off AI generated image.

Anywho, that’s all I’ve got for now.

I wrote half of this blog when I was very motivated and inspired by this topic and then the last half a month later when I was totally uninspired.

I would love to hear your thoughts on AI headshots.