Rant: this is going to sound crazy but I think AI generated images hit an uncanny valley in an existential sense, far more than a literal one.
I want things to be clearly real or clearly fiction, I think, as part of touching the world. I desperately want f'rex a mother wolf carrying her pup away from sleeping next to a human to be a very real miracle out there, but if it's obviously something else someone made, that connects me to THEM, to whatever humans also want this miracle to be real enough to paint or animate it. There's no FACT, but there's TRUTH.
Photorealistic AI makes not fiction but LIES. Someone wants me to believe in their video, in turn built using plagarism we're told isn't, and the benefit of a cute animal vid is nothing compared to the ecological and health costs. If you can get me to believe a lie about wolves, maybe you can get me to believe lies about let's say AIDS, Jews, or American history. Given that I grew up being lied to about AIDS, Jews and American history that's a sore nerve. I'm 8 or 10 or 15 again, and the adult world has found another convenient lie for me to believe in.
Does any of this make sense?
Rant: this is going to sound crazy but I think AI generated images hit an uncanny valley in an existential sense, far more than a literal one.
@Leucrotta yes