A.I. & Art with Amit Lennon

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Perception Podcast with me your host Caroline Partridge. In this episode, I talk to portrait photographer and film maker Amit Lennon. It's a real pleasure to listen to Amit share the his journey from Astronomy & Physics graduate to award winning photographer, and hear his personal perspectives on what makes a good portrait. Amit talks about his love of film making, and his recent portrait project, a fascinating exploration into the world of AI, that was initially inspired by Lucien Freud's painting process. He also spills the beans on what photographing the queen of country music, Dolly Parton is really like. Please join me as we look at life through a different lens. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Portrait photography is a two-way interaction between the photographer and the subject, requiring the photographer to guide the conversation and capture the essence of the moment.
• AI-generated portraits lack the imperfections and idiosyncrasies that make humans unique, resulting in polished but somewhat uncanny images.
• AI can be trained on billions of stolen images from the internet, raising ethical concerns about the use of AI in creative fields.
• While AI can be a useful tool, it is limited by the data it is trained on and may struggle to generate truly original ideas.
• The increasing prevalence of AI in creative industries poses existential threats to various professions, as AI can potentially reuse and repurpose human-created content without permission.
• Human creativity is limitless, while AI-assisted creativity is restricted by the data it is trained on, often resulting in repetitive or stylistically similar outputs.
• Lennon's AI portrait project aims to explore the ambiguity and limitations of AI-generated images by providing the AI with minimal prompts and allowing it to interpret the data in its own way.
• The future of AI in creative fields is uncertain, but it is crucial to remember that AI is a tool that cannot replace the unique perspectives and ideas of human creators.

BEST MOMENTS

"I'm not looking for anything from anyone. I just want them to maybe not be, self aware so much, because obviously we're very self aware of how we look."

"AI is kind of everywhere, rapidly evolving and rapidly changing and getting smarter"

"I always think that kind of human creativity over decades is kind of like being quite limitless. But like AI, assisted creativity is slightly restricted within the realms of what it is." 

"These things are amazing tools, photography probably when it started 150 plus years ago was viewed as a sort of some terrible thing compared to painting. It's not art."  

"I hope people vote human rather than AI."

ABOUT THE GUEST

https://www.amitlennon.com/
https://www.amitlennon.com/ai-portrayal
www.instagram.com/amitlennon

CONTACT METHOD

FACEBOOK - https://www.facebook.com/caropartridge

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/caroline-partridge-03131520

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/partridge_caroline