As AI is growing in popularity there are many ideas as to what, if any, difference it will make to photography in general and maybe your photography in particular. First of all, there are more than one type of AI in the photography world. One is AI assisted tools such as the masking and many other tools in most editing apps these days. The other is the generative type where it will create whole images for you from prompts you type in. The AI assisted tools, I think are just fine, they are designed to help or to save time and I’m all for that. They don’t change photography any more than traditional editing does. That isn’t always the case with generative AI.
Some think AI will kill photography but I think that is a bit of a stretch. I think it will hurt certain genres, but in general, there will still be plenty of photography happening. AI will never be able to shoot a wedding or sporting event or any form of event photography for that matter, nor will it be useful for any news related images. That said, there will be genres that will be affected, some already are very much. I don’t think it will have any affect on your hobby shooting whatever that may be. Pro photographers may have to change their direction a bit depending on what they do but I think if you’re a portrait photographer you’ll be pretty safe.
Some landscape photographers have expressed concern that people would now be able to sit at a computer and type in prompts and get photos of iconic locations like Niagara Falls, The Grand Canyon, or The Canadian Rockies without ever going to any of these places. Why on earth would they want to do that? Where is the satisfaction in that? I recently went to The Canadian Rockies and experienced Moraine Lake in person. I got there in the middle of the night and slept in the car till dawn just to shoot sunrise at Canada’s most photographed lake. I assure you, there is no AI on this planet that can give the same thrill as seeing and experiencing that kind of beauty up close and personal. Landscape photographers like to get out in nature, hike, find locations and shoot actual photographs. Who said you can’t get no satisfaction?!
The biggest place that AI will change photography for me personally is how I look at YOUR work. These days I often question photographs as to their process. Sometimes I see something that just looks “off” and I question it. I know for a fact that there are lots of folks out there using generative AI as a staple tool. There is a popular YouTuber who actually did a whole video about how they use it routinely to alter images that they don’t like or maybe missed the mark in camera. That seems to me to be a case of using AI as a crutch to cover for laziness.