What a superb article.

As a photographer I would often find myself in conversations about 'real' vs 'fake' photos, and awards given out.

I can't remember who the dude was, but he got a journalistic photography award, and it was discovered that he'd moved a coke can into the frame as part of taking the picture.

The cry was that he had constructed the image rather than journalistically taken a shot as a record of truth.

Others have gotten in trouble for removing a telegraph pole from their landscape.

Yet at the same time, there are many who only decide do they like the image or not. That's it.

I fiddle with AI Art now. There's a huge stink about AI Art not being 'real' yet at the same time I see a staggering range of quality in the images produced. Just like I see with photography, or writing, or sculpture.

So it seems to me that many fakes will be like fan fiction. People will say 'I don't know if this is Harry, but I don't care because I really like it.'

It will be an interesting future.

Collectors can get quite rabid about the authenticity of their collection, so I'm certain some very fine grained and accurate forensic tech will get developed.