The use of generative AI technologies, including Photoshop's Generative Fill , ChatGPT, and Stable Diffusion are becoming more ubiquitous among creatives. My thoughts about using AI are rapidly changing as the technology evolves.

The tools we use to create art change every day. Humans have always derived art from other artists' styles, but now that derivation takes a few dollars, a few words, and a few moments. With GenAI, it's unclear which artist is inspiring us, and how much we're taking from them. At the same time, GenAI tools help us fulfill our artistic vision quickly and (sometimes) beautifully.

The final decision about whether GenAI is acceptable to use is up to my client. If I want to use GenAI for a project, it's important to me that my client understands what that means.

If I use generative AI to significantly modify one of my photos, I will place an AI disclosure near that image.

In high school, I worked as a photo editor and Web developer at a small photo studio in Middleton, MA . At one point, I was given the task to remove a family from a background of a wedding photo, leaving just the bride and groom. That edit took me several careful hours with Photoshop CS2's clone stamp and adjustment tools. After I finished editing that photo - a significant portion of which was digitally altered - it was printed on the front page of a local wedding magazine. I was very proud.

With access to Photoshop's Generative Fill, teenage Zach would have finished that project in minutes, not hours, and the result would have been almost impossible to discern from a real photo. Would the creators of the magazine have published my photo if they knew how it was made?

You may be interested in one of my AI-related projects, I Am A Good Bing , a news website I co-developed with my wife that aggregates silly and serious stories about modern AI.