- Published
A photographer is warning parents who use artificial intelligence to take the watermark off school pictures about the dangers of how companies can use images of their children.
asserted
companies → publish → children
Ian Gilbert, founder of Emotion Picture Photography, said he had heard parents boasting at the school gates about how they use the tool to avoid paying for photos.
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they → say → photos
"The scary thing is when you submit a picture to AI by default it is allowed to do whatever it wants and I don't think a lot of parents realise that," he said.
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he → submit → that
An AI safety expert said he understood why people did it, and that it may seem harmless, but uploading any identifiable information, including photographs, was "not worth the risk".
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uploading → say → photographs
Gilbert, from Pontypool, Torfaen, urged parents to think carefully before uploading their child's photograph to an AI tool.
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Gilbert → urge → tool
Annual school photographs are a rite of passage but, with technology now able to remove watermarks from preview images in seconds, some parents are bypassing the payment process altogether.
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parents → remove → process
"It is theft, it is shoplifting," said 47-year-old Gilbert.
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Gilbert → say → ?
"People wouldn't go into a shop and take a tag off something and take it without paying.
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People → go → it
"It's as though because it's something you can do online at home, it seems to numb it in people's eyes."
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it → do → eyes
Gilbert said other photographers were increasingly seeing the same behaviour from parents.
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photographers → say → parents
He noticed that about 25% of images sent out were being screenshot to be used in AI tools as he is notified when it happens.
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it → notice → tools
"That's a quarter of parents not paying.
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parents → pay → ?
A quarter of profit lost for us.
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quarter → lose → us
Also the school get a cut from the revenue as well, so it's a loss for the school."
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it → get → school
The photographer said he had noticed a drop in profits in the past 12 months.
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he → say → months
He said he heard parents at the school gates talking using AI to avoid paying after he had been inside taking photos.
"
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he → say → photos
They were referring to my own photos that I took at the school.
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I → refer → school
"One said 'Are you going to buy the pics?'
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you → say → pics
And the other said 'I'm just going to get AI to remove the watermark off and it only costs me a pound'."
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it → say → pound
He said all people had to do was claim they were the owner of the image in order for the watermark to be removed.
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watermark → say → image
Gilbert told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast that he wanted his photos to be affordable so charged from £9.
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photos → tell → 9
"For the sake of a couple of pounds with AI you're getting such a lower-quality product and ultimately it just makes us have to put prices up again, which is unfair for everyone," he said.
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he → get → everyone
"You are constantly fighting and chasing your tail."
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You → fight → tail
He added that the company he worked with was working to implement "high-tech methods to beat AI" including putting moving images over photos so they cannot be copied.
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they → add → photos
Dr Simon Thorne, a senior computer science lecturer at Cardiff School of Technologies, urged people, as a general rule, to "never upload any personable identifiable photos".
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Thorne → urge → photos
It's a big risk," he said.
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he → say → ?
"The dataset could get leaked online potentially and your material can be used to train future generations of the model.
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material → leak → model
The image could be sold - you have no idea.
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you → sell → idea
Depending on the service, you may have very little idea how long that image is retained, how it is processed or whether it is reused."
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it → depend → idea
Thorne said if the photograph contained other children, it raises an additional issue because their parents may have no idea that an image of their child has been uploaded to an AI system.
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image → say → system
"We recently had a case where a child was ill and missed a school photograph, so a parent used AI to add them back into the picture afterwards," he said.
"
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he → have → picture
I can understand entirely why they did that, but they did not seem to appreciate that uploading and manipulating images of children in this way can carry real privacy and safeguarding risks."
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uploading → understand → privacy
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Theft aside, Gilbert said this method also gave people a low-quality photo.
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method → say → photo
"Our work is not just a quick shot - we have really beautiful set ups and spend a lot of time and money creating images.
"
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we → have → images
Across the board it's getting worse and worse and if it gets to the point where it's not profitable for us, I may have to stop my service."
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I → get → service
"It's a huge issue, but I don't know how we would attack it.
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we → know → it
How would you make ChapGPT aware and hold them to account?
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them → make → account
It feels like a David and Goliath situation."
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It → feel → situation
He added that the Guild of Photographers was looking at how they can bring prosecutions to people using such services and not paying.
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they → add → services
Victoria Welton, a photographer based in Crewkerne, works across 15 schools and nurseries in Somerset.
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Welton → base → Somerset
…and 33 more, not listed.
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