I had the chance to explore how image analysis and artificial intelligence helps identify objects through IIIF and AI colorization. These features help transform older archive pictures into new colored pictures. At first, the technology / website seemed really cool. I was able to transform grayscale photographs into vibrant and colorful sceneries that were still relatively accurate to what the picture would look like. What surprised me most was that there wasn’t a paywall behind this feature because of how useful it was. Im sure this now easily accessible feature was once part of a more complex software that Im not sure would be accessible to the public.
The fact that this software is so easy to use raises the question about how ethical and reliable it is. Simply claiming to “restore” the colors isn’t enough to define this as accurate history. Similar to Sonja Drimmer’s critique of AI colorization, restoring photos can obscure the line between representation and simulation. “Adding color does not show things as they were but recreates what is already a recreation, a photograph, in our own image” This quote made me think more about the validity of AI and its involvement with history, especially without clear markers of something being human or AI generated. Another one of the readings by Ted Chiang also reinforced this idea. “ChatGPT is a Blurry JPEG of the Web”, reminded me that AI doesn’t have a human sense, it replicates what patterns its picked up on through the web. If colorized images by AI are treated as truth than they might distort how future people who interpret these images understand what they think is ‘actual’ history. This takes away from past environments and cultures that can’t be perfectly restored by AI.
Reflecting on my own usage of the website, where smaller features like shadows were off, tells me that AI isn’t always going to do a perfect job and at times these ‘small’ features can one day be larger things that aren’t treated as trivial. Although I can’t take away from the fact that using this feature is really cool, being able to engage with history in this way is extremely unique and often insightful.