In the brave new world of AI, we are now involved whether we choose to be or not.

I've had several Facebook travel ads come up with ABSURDLY generated AI images of a well known excursion operation in the west, in a recognizable location - but the AI equipment images are well..... interesting.

First one has a Maine Central GP38 cab grafted on to the smokebox of maybe a CP G5 Pacific, pulling a train of AARPCO cars..... or maybe it's a Chinese locomotive with a CPR tender, hard to tell.....

Second one has the 'return trip' with a rather squashed-up version of a K28 Mikado with an English cab, 4 wheel trailing truck and coal bunker switcher tank, and a train of B&M yellow coaches......

Third one had another blended locomotive of a GP38 cab with a passenger car body, a Chinese locomotive helper, and what looks like a train of P-S Rock Island commuter coaches......

The backgrounds, however, are photographically flawless. Scary so.

I have no idea the legality in this, in theory you could have AI generate a photo-quality image of 4014 running on the Edaville Ralroad and promote it as a travel experience. And have your customers asking about steam when you don't run it, and where that tunnel is on your railroad when you are in Florida.

Ladies and Gentlemen, this is the future, ready or not.

Or the past is back, where every image was drawn by illustrators who may or may not have observed the reality and where their image produced was submitted to the technicians who made mass reproduction possible (for example see Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper in the Civil War era and following).

Perhaps the era where a photograph was accepted as an accurate representation of reality was just a bubble caused by technological advances/limitations....

Timothy

Good point.... but even in 1874 I don't think anybody thought this was 'real'.....

https://www.cartermuseum.org/collection ... ay-1970190

Now if you wanted real imagination, you went to stock certificate images....
.....or Official Guide railroad maps.....

These are scary good in terms of quality. Reminding us all that we can no longer trust images.

Thanks for that image. At least they got the broad gauge right.........

Imagine the shock it must have been to those used to the black and white before when the technicians figured out how to lithograph multiple reproductions in color! I'm guessing when just printed that was even brighter.....

And then there was the Gutenberg press. Nobody expected literacy rates would ever go beyond half a percent or so. Wait! Maybe we're headed back there, too!

Timothy

I'm familiar with the ads you're seeing, as I see plenty of them too. A recent one has a D&S hybrid steam/UP diesel cab forward design, CP tender and coaches that look like they're from Conway Scenic.

Last spring I got an ad for "Scenic Train Tours in Pittsburgh" with a photo of the D&SNG. Curious I clicked on the ad to see what the heck they were selling. It turns out that all they do is link to a google search for "Scenic train rides in Pittsburgh". They're not selling anything other than Google clicks.

Here is the offending photo from Facebook.

Let anyone who chooses to proceed with AI do so at their own risk. Personally, I have no use for AI. I learned proper grammar and learned how to read and write and don't need an algorithm to tell me otherwise. I really think AI is already taking us backwards and rapidly so.

Regarding these fake photos, same sentiment to any organization that doesn't know any better. You deserve what you get for your false advertising.

Rob Gardner

Awesome! I'm scheduled to run that Sunday. I can hardly wait!

AI images have been around for a few years. Even though they're getting better, with a sharp eye you can still tell the difference even if there isn't a dead giveaway as mentioned above. Examine textures and features. On people, you may find odd looking facial or body features. For example, AI has a really hard time rendering hands and feet.

Sore spot:
Though I haven't looked into AI image generation, as a musician with 60 years under my belt I am very well aware as far as the music industry is concerned. There have been and continue to be lawsuits over AI learning from copyrighted materials without compensation. There's little else can it learn from. Thankfully, AI music cannot be copyrighted as an independent group of individuals from the music industry successfully lobbied congress and gave testimony as to why it should not be copyrighted. A keen ear should be able to pick up on whether or not some song was AI generated. For me, it's obvious. For the general public, not so much. AI is turning art into a commodity. Who AI can really hurt are the musicians, photographers, artists, writers, etc. as it's a hell of a lot cheaper than dealing with a bunch of pesky, expensive humans.

Though it can't be copyrighted, there are individuals and businesses who are paid to enter the descriptive criteria for AI to use to come up with songs. For example: a bluegrass song about beer and Mama as if played by Pink Floyd. That's simplistic but you get the idea. The better the input, the better the output. I assume it's the same with images. There are companies that are paid for the distribution or sale of AI generated music. Then there's the AI host - they get paid for the use of their software. And this is something that the big record companies are really looking into.

We all need to pay attention to this considering those at the top get all the money while human artists and those that support their work fade into obscurity and obsolescence.

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How about a Shay on the Duquesne Incline? Trying to imagine another scenic rail ride(apart from the Mon Incline) in Pittsburgh right now, or even where one might go. Shame the Pittsburgh, McKeesport and Yough was abandoned and removed.

Not just images, but even glaringly incorrect articles written by AI. Check out this review of Downeast Scenic Railroad by Jessica Tucker at "The Travel", which is quite obviously written by AI and makes it clear that the supposed-author never actually even went anywhere near the Downeast Scenic.

https://www.thetravel.com/most-underrated-train-ride-in-maine-downeast-scenic-railroad/

With gems like:



As at least one commenter noted: "I wouldn't call the Downeast Scenic's route to be "on the outskirts of Acadia National Park"... the driving distance from Washington Junction Yard to Acadia National Park (specifically, the Hulls Cove Visitor's Center) is 19 miles! The repeated references to Amtrak are a head scratcher too, as if they come anywhere close - the distance from that same Hulls Cove Visitor's Center to the Portland Transportation Center is a whopping 174 miles! And what of the "Portland to Acadia route" - do they mean Brunswick? OK, that's closer - but still 150 miles short of Acadia National Park. And do they really "provide" you a rental car to get the rest of the way? Sure, if you pay for it, and you'll need to make advance arrangements since as far as I am aware there are no car rental agencies located right at either POR or BRK."

Someone once said 'where there's artificial intelligence, there'll be a hell of a lot more artificial stupidity'. We laughed. At the time.

There is also the timeworn old computer acronym GIGO, which applies nicely when artificial ignorance starts 'ginning up railroad imagery. The only thing remotely resembling correct 'orogramming' of LLMs in railroading so far is Preston Cook's instation of the Dragon speech-to-text software. I find it naturally incomprehensible that with all the megabucks being thrown at fake AI, no one has bothered to train it like the old AI/ES systems.

I regret to say that I never questioned the general validity of that Erie cut. I suppose the next thing the serious preservationists are going to say is that Vanderbilt never rode a pair of locomotives Roman style...

The fake reviews for clicks is another thing, and while supposedly there is no 'bad publicity' there is certainly such a thing as poor fulfillment of expectations, or expedient prejudgment based on crowdsourced nonsense. The great secret agenda Kalmbach Publications proposed back in 2018 is exactly the sort of thing that leads to seemingly 'targeted' advertising using "community of enthusiasts"-specific buzzwords and 'interaction'-producing terms that is devoid of either truthful content or purpose beyond harvesting clicks and pushing more advertising -- always phrased as 'opportunities', of course.

Someplace I see the big money developing -- just as it should have been back at the age this problem was originally on our radar -- is in artificially-intelligent agents that filter and debunk the increasing surge of fake everything, and as long as it is practically possible, determine the truth behind even the biggest organized lies. It's sad that so many people worked with such a wild will to build this ever more imperfect excuse for a world, but I suppose that just as people elect the democracy they deserve, people get the laissez-faire manipulation they tolerate.

Now back to the serious preservationists and how they propose to deal with this yivshish,

I found it hilarious how in the days after the US election, supporters of the Presidential contest winner were posting what was clearly an AI generated image of a train with an amrican flag colored smoke trail behind it.

Typically these are the same people that would speak against computer generated imagery and want to keep everything 100% american, yet even the locomotive on the train itself was of some european style. I guess it only matters when it doesnt effect them. Hypocrisy at its best (or worst?).

The issue isn't so much "AI-generated imagery" as it's witless, incompetent, expedient AI product that doesn't have our standards of fidelity or rivet-counting. If you wanted, for example, a NYC C1a as a (logical, to me) follow-on to PRR 5550, the logical place to start would be with a 'digital twin' that would be tweaked as needed and then rendered into a variety of formats and multiphysics models. Properly-implemented AI could assist with that in a number of ways, without the need for compromises of the sort Karen Parker (of Pixel Magic fame) had to make.

When you have a "European" train with USA (or rainbow unicorn fart) smoke, you obviously have 'clients' who could care less about anything other than 'generic train metaphor' I'd almost rather have that than see some famous locomotive encounter 'hate' because of the use or adoption of its image or likeness in propaganda.

I, unfortunately, am one of those people who screams and points when there is a railroad-related whopper in a Hollywood movie, or some mistaken reference in a work of fiction. I do think there's a place for 'generic trains' that don't mirror any actual prototype... there may even be a place for modern equivalents of the trains in books like the various Little Engine That Coulds (most of which had me screaming even as a three-year-old!) or movies like the William Hurt 1984. (And perhaps for some future reboot of Supertrain or Snowpiercer, although I have far less hope that could be made to work very well...)

I'm personally waiting for the people who have been 'bringing famous paintings to life' to take up some railroad subjects, for example other views of our Christmas special at Rural Retreat... in 4K or 8K, with 5.1 or better sound with high dynamic range. Not everything about the future has to be dystopian...

I liked Silver Streak and Run away train.
I don't think there is a Stash of Cocaine big enough to cause a reboot of Supertrain.
There already is a Snowpiercer show.

It's the fact that "AI" (plagiarism engines) are being lazily trained for making images that have no real use than generating a small about of ad revenue, which is much less than the cost of energy to produce them.

OTOH, I can see a "thomas" event going the way this did.

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2024/willy-wonka-glasgow-artificial-intelligence/