Amateur Photographer - UK (2019-06-21)

46 15 June 2019Iwww.amateurphotographer.co.ukIsubscribe 03303331113

A

rtificialintelligence(AI)is already

changingtheworldasweknowit

andphotographyis noexception

• fromautomaticallyenhancing
  smartphonesnapsto robotphotographers,AIis
  nowinfluencingalmostallareasof photography.
  It’salreadyclearthatAIhasenormous
  potentialtochangethewaywetakephotos
  andmanagetheincreasinglylargenumbersof
  imagesweproduce.So,regardlessof whether
  you’rea puristwhopreferstoshootanalogue,
  orif youembracecomputationalphotography
  already,it’sgoodtoknowwhat’sin stock,so
  youcanchoosehowtomake photography’s
  AItoolsworkforyou.

WhatisAI?
AIis alreadyseepingintomoreandmoreareas
of ourlives,fromdatingtomedicaldiagnosis.
CarolineSinders,anAIexpert,comparesit to
electricityorevenminedsaltin itspotentialto
transform.Shesays,‘If wethinkaboutit like
saltorelectricity,weseethatit touchesso
many areas, including product design and

AI

in photography

SoniaKlugexplorestheever-increasingimpactof

artifi cial intelligence (AI) on photographic technology

policy.Weneedtothinkof AIlikeanimportant

andtransformativeingredient.’

Strictlyspeaking,artificialintelligencecan

beanythingvaguelysmarta computerdoes,

butit’susuallyunderstoodtoincludea degree

of machinelearning.Recenttechnological

advanceshavemadeit possibletonotonly

collectvastamountsof data,butalsoprocess

themat highspeed,usingalgorithms.

Thesecodes,describingsetsof rulesor

step-by-stepinstructions,canbeorganised

in complexartificialneuralnetworks,roughly

basedonthestructureof thebrain,which

makesit possibleformachinestolearn.Often

trainingsets– forexample,imagesof ‘cats’as

wellas‘notcats’– arefedintosucha system,

allowingit notonlytolearnwhata catlooks

like,butalsoimproveitsperformancewith

eachnewimageit processes.

Advancedsystemscan,mindbogglingly,

figureouthowtolearnbythemselves.This

is oftenreferredtoas‘deeplearning’,which

is excitingaswellastroubling and is already

revolutionising science.

© GETT Y IMAGES /SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY RM

Below:Sony’slatest

AFsystemsinclude

real-timeAI-based

eyetrackingforboth

humans and animals

Belowright:Olympus

exploited‘deep

learning’technology

toprogramtheOM-D

E-M1X’s autofocus