AI is scraping billions of selfies from social media to train facial recognition. Bots target unmarked photos, but a simple watermark can protect your images. Here’s what you need to know.
Shutter showdown: Stock vs. AI photos
ID 324976990 | Ai © Svetlana Diacenco | Dreamstime.com
I love making AI-generated pics. I’ve spent hours tinkering with prompts to see what I can dream up. But here’s the big question I get from business owners: Do AI images or good old-fashioned stock photos work better in marketing? Let’s put them head-to-head.
🙋♀️ Clicks love a human face
When we compare ad performance, stock photos win out on:
- Clicks: Stock photos hit a 0.53% CTR vs. 0.49–0.52% for top AI versions.
- Conversions: Real people boost conversions by up to 45%.
- Trust: Genuine images got lower bounce rates and higher engagement.
Why the gap? Our brains know when a face looks almost real but not quite right. That’s the “uncanny valley” effect. Stock gives you the real deal.
💸 When “free” costs you
Sure, AI is a budget-friendly shortcut. But let’s break down the real costs:
- Adobe Firefly: Included with Adobe Creative Cloud subscriptions, starting at $54.99 a month.
- ChatGPT Teams: Runs $25 to $30 a month, with limits on AI image generation.
- Midjourney: A basic plan starts at $10 a month, up to $120 a month for pro-level features.
Free-tiers only let you generate a handful of visuals each day. Not exactly unlimited creativity.
On top of that, sell-through rates favor traditional photos: 13% of stock images make at least one sale vs. 9% for AI. Those wasted impressions can cost you more than a stock photo subscription.
🛡️ Keep your brand safe
Bad visuals aren’t just awkward. They hurt your bottom line. AI-generated content can sneak in extra fingers, weird shadows, distorted text or inconsistent lighting. Not the look you want for your brand.
Have AI be your own graphic artist
ChatGPT
Confession time: I can’t draw. My brain doesn’t lean at all in the artsy direction. I’ve tried to teach myself Photoshop, but every attempt ends with me whisper-screaming “flatten layer” like it’s going to summon help from the Adobe gods.
🔥 Suspect arrested: A 29-year-old Uber driver named Jonathan Rinderknecht has been arrested for allegedly starting the Palisades Fire that killed 12 and destroyed nearly 7,000 homes in LA. Feds say he started an open flame right after dropping off passengers and used ChatGPT to create images of a “dystopian painting” of a city being burned on one side while “hundreds of thousands of people in poverty are trying to get past a gigantic gate with a big dollar sign on it.” He faces 20 years.
Over 500 million
That’s how many images have already been edited with Nano Banana. The AI tool is part of Google’s Gemini, which is the #1 iPhone app in the U.S. App Store. The hook? It keeps character likeness and lets you mash multiple pics together, like putting your face into a suit. Try it now on iOS and Android. You can generate or edit up to 100 images per day.
🎮 Protect your kids on Discord: You can filter out NSFW images sent from strangers, friends and server channels. Go to User Settings > Content & Social > Content and Block everything under Mature Sexual Media and Graphic Media. While you’re there, scroll to Direct Message spam, and toggle Filter all.
🪟 AI actions in File Explorer: Microsoft is testing Windows 11 tools that let you edit images and docs without even opening them. Right-click a JPEG and you can remove or blur backgrounds or run a Bing reverse search. Soon? One-click document summaries. If you’re a Windows Insider, you can try it out now. I’ll let you know when it drops for the rest of us.
♣️ Google laid its AI cards on the table: Google quietly dropped limits for Gemini. Free users get five prompts per day, 100 images per month and five long-form deep dives. The Gemini Advanced (Ultra 1.5) plan runs $19.99/month and bumps you up to 500 prompts per day, 1,000 images per month and daily high-powered file analysis using Gemini in Gmail, Docs and more.
🤯 Fake YouTubia: A Wired report found at least 120 YouTube channels cranking out AI-generated celeb drama, like phony talk show fights using still images and robotic voice-overs. One video shows Mark Wahlberg getting roasted on The View. Didn’t happen. This isn’t fake news, it’s full-on delusion theater.
Earhart on Google Earth? British pilot Justin Myers says he’s “99% sure” he’s found Amelia Earhart’s missing plane off Nikumaroro Island, using only Google Earth images. The shapes match her Lockheed Electra’s dimensions. Nobody’s funding his dive yet, but a rival November expedition might beat him to it. Historic aviation meets the “zoom in and squint” method.
🎨 Need stunning photos? I’ve used Dreamstime for years, and for good reason. Whether you’re building a website, designing a presentation or just need the perfect pic for social media, Dreamstime has millions of royalty-free images that won’t break the bank.
1 afternoon
That’s all it took for AI to spot a missing hiker’s helmet in 2,600 drone images. After 10 months of silence, a few off-color pixels in a sea of rock cracked the case. Searchers found the hiker’s body the next morning, 600 meters below Monviso Peak. Weeks of human searching, replaced by one machine-powered glance.
🖥️ Pick the right refresh rate: Resolution isn’t everything when buying a monitor. Refresh rate affects how smooth motion looks and helps cut down on choppy images. For everyday work, anything over 60 Hz is fine. Gamers and video editors should go for 180 Hz. And if your kids are serious about Fortnite, they’ll want 240 Hz or more.
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30%
The share of telescope images now tainted by Starlink’s signal leakage. One out of every three cosmic snapshots gets photobombed by a satellite. Researchers spotted unintentional radiation, using 76 million images from the EDA2 telescope. These signals aren’t even part of the satellites’ jobs, they’re just leaking and contaminating data meant to map the cosmic “dark ages.”
Clear it out on Android, too: Open Chrome and tap the three dots (top right). Go to Delete browsing data and choose a Timeframe. Now tap More options and make sure Browsing history, Cookies and site data, and Cached images and files are selected. Then hit Delete data at the bottom.
📸 In hot water: Tea, the viral app for women to warn each other about sketchy men, just leaked 72,000 images, including 13,000 selfies and IDs, that they admit to. Plot twist: It wasn’t hacked. The pics were sitting in an open cloud folder, completely unsecured. The app went from leading the App Store to the “oh no” list.
🪞 Try it on now: Google just dropped a new virtual try-on tool in Search, Shopping and Images. Upload a full-body photo, pick an outfit, and boom, you’re your own digital mannequin. Bonus: You can now set exact price alerts for that dress you’ve been stalking. Can’t wait to catfish myself in 4K.
🎨 Can’t pay for Photoshop? GIMP is a free image editor that’s as close to Photoshop as you can get without paying. You can create images, logos, thumbnails or retouch photos. Plus, it’s got all the tools you need, like filters, layers, color tweaks, masking and more. Works on macOS, Windows and Linux, too.
$2 billion
That’s the massive chunk of change the former CTO (and briefly CEO) of OpenAI, Mira Murati, raised for her AI startup. Before it’s even shipped a product. The company’s called Thinking Machines, and it’s gunning to build the next-gen AI that can juggle text, images and more. Investors like Nvidia and a16z don’t need a demo, just Murati’s résumé and a good story.
⚡️ 3-second tech genius: If you want to see where an image came from, go to images.google.com. Click the camera icon, upload the file and run a reverse image search. Nice.