Photo of a couple leaving a Boston train station.

Be Careful with Generative AI! (One Shot Story)

By Dave Powell

1 August, 2025

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One Shot Story
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On July 17, 2025, more than 1,500 anti-Trump “Make Good Trouble” protests (totaling perhaps 56,000 people) occurred across the U.S. Of these, nearly 100 groups gathered in Massachusetts. And thanks to Generative AI, a seeming impossibility was photographed in a Boston train station.

One of my favorite political writers is Robert B. Hubbell, whose July 19 post in his “Today’s Edition Newsletter” contained the above photo from reader “Curt D.” It showed two protesters in a commuter-rail station. But other readers quickly noted that the image also sports one (possibly two) anatomic boo-boos. Can you spot them? One is fairly obvious, while the other is so subtle that I remain unconvinced.

Mr. Hubbell explained that he removed a third person from the photo because they “distracted attention from the couple,” and that Photoshop’s Generative AI tools had done the job. But not without taking liberties with the image. (I think the person removed may have been sitting or standing just inside the door. If you magnify and look at the floor there, the bricks are smeared and off-color… while the bricks elsewhere are well-defined.)

This offers an interesting reminder that in the “AI Age,” we all need to be careful about the photos and videos we take, make, share and believe.

NOTE: If you were wondering, Robert “Hubbell” is indeed a descendant of astronomer Edwin “Hubble”– who in 1929, confirmed the expansion of the universe. And after whom the Hubble Space Telescope is named. Robert Hubbell also happens to be an avid astrophotographer, whose great images close many of his columns. 

–Dave Powell is a Westford, Mass., writer and avid amateur photographer.

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About The Author

By Dave Powell
Trained in mathematics, physics, computer programming and science journalism. Retired mathematician, award-winning technical and journalistic writer. Past winner of an international business-journalism equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize. And past author and editorial advisor for Sesame Street... where I regularly worked with Jim Henson and Kermit! Now enjoying "retirement studies" of photography, quantum physics and "scientific spirituality." (And restoring a shamefully lapsed relationship with the piano.)
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Comments

John Pokrzywa on Be Careful with Generative AI! (One Shot Story)

Comment posted: 01/08/2025

So it appears that the image of the female has her feet possibly pointed the wrong way (toward the viewer with the heels of her shoes away from the viewer) her right leg appears drastically smaller than her left, to the point of being unnatural and likely drawn/generated into position, and there appears to be a mass of hair growing from the right side of her head and jutting straight out from her right shoulder. If this was photoshop, I would have expected better from a program used by millions of photographers.
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Dave Powell replied:

Comment posted: 01/08/2025

Interesting observations, John! I agree about her right leg (and it wasn't mentioned by the column's readers)! Her hair looks like it could be just long and laying across her shoulder. But even that could have been AI... 'cause its being so precisely perched along there does seem unnatural. The other thing that commenters mentioned was his left elbow, they thought looked odd (I'm not sure about that). Good eye!

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Timothy Hancock on Be Careful with Generative AI! (One Shot Story)

Comment posted: 01/08/2025

Feet, hand, hair - all weird !
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Dave Powell replied:

Comment posted: 01/08/2025

Hi Timothy. I'm not sure I see the hand issue... but it is right at the edge of the wonky floor tiles. So AI may well have touched it! What looks odd to you?

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Gary Smith on Be Careful with Generative AI! (One Shot Story)

Comment posted: 01/08/2025

It's everywhere.

Keep us safe Dave!
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Dave Powell replied:

Comment posted: 01/08/2025

On sentry duty!

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Jukka Reimola on Be Careful with Generative AI! (One Shot Story)

Comment posted: 01/08/2025

Watch "Black Mirror", if you haven't already. Great warning about exessive hi-tech going haywire...
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Dave Powell replied:

Comment posted: 01/08/2025

Hi Jukka, That happens to be on my watch list, and you just moved it to the top. Thanks!

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Doug Anderson on Be Careful with Generative AI! (One Shot Story)

Comment posted: 01/08/2025

It's not just photos. An increasing amount of print and online text also shows obvious signs of AI. Unfortunately in a very short time AI influenced material will be essentially undetectable.
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Dave Powell replied:

Comment posted: 01/08/2025

Right on, Doug! And it's in text where we also see AI wander off into what are called "hallucinations" (misleading, inaccurate or wildly inappropriate answers). Wired Magazine today discussed an extreme example of this: ChatGPT has begun to wander into what they call "Demon Mode"... where it may discuss disturbing occult rituals. This is apparently triggered when someone enters anything that might be interpreted as a reference to the Warhammer RPG diety Moloch. I think Alan Turing would have anticipated this as our machines work harder to replicate human thought. It would be hard to add protective filters against such errors in judgement for every game in existence. Better-- but tougher to code-- would be building in a sense of decorum and decency!

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Tony Warren on Be Careful with Generative AI! (One Shot Story)

Comment posted: 02/08/2025

That is majorly bizarre Dave and convinces me even more that I shall avoid this technology like the plague.
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Dave Powell replied:

Comment posted: 02/08/2025

A good plan for the immediate future! But all of this makes me think about some great advice from Robert Swihart, my favorite high school math teacher. Back then, the only "computers" we had for science and math classes were slide rules. And Mr. Swihart admonished us to "always have a general idea of what the end result should be before accepting what the device tells you." This applies even more to AI results!

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Alexander Seidler replied:

Comment posted: 02/08/2025

Like your point of view Dave. I wish our young generation will be educated like your math teacher did.

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Dave Powell replied:

Comment posted: 02/08/2025

Thanks Alexander... and Amen to that!

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Dan Castelli on Be Careful with Generative AI! (One Shot Story)

Comment posted: 02/08/2025

The woman's feet? It's a feat to go forward & backward at the same time. A Dr. Suess parody?
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Dave Powell replied:

Comment posted: 02/08/2025

That's the big one Dan... And wouldn't it be fascinating to ask AI to create a Dr. Suess scene?! (Not for sale of course.)

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Gordon Ownby on Be Careful with Generative AI! (One Shot Story)

Comment posted: 02/08/2025

Adding, removing, or moving any element in a documentary photo is a firm, bright line. So there's an element in a photo that is distracting? Too bad: No one is entitled to a perfect photograph.
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Geoff Chaplin replied:

Comment posted: 02/08/2025

Well said!

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Dave Powell replied:

Comment posted: 02/08/2025

Agreed!

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Geoff Chaplin on Be Careful with Generative AI! (One Shot Story)

Comment posted: 02/08/2025

It seems a large percentage of click-bait YouTube videos are AI generated text/visuals/audio based on limited facts and lots of invention aka fictional story telling. Too many people simply believe it. I no longer trust anything the doesn't reference it's sources.
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Dave Powell replied:

Comment posted: 02/08/2025

Totally agree! Such as the heart-warming videos about wild animals returning favors to humans who saved them or their babies. Or many highly formulaic YouTube vids about the latest quantum physics discoveries. Also (back to photography for a bit) my Yahoo News page often runs multiple versions of misleading click-bait picture-caption ads that feature AI-generated photos. Specifically, there's a fellow on the web who inserts images of vintage sports cars into various European settings. And multiple ads will appear on the Yahoo News page-- with the same (or different cars) in different settings-- and messages to "see the new Kia BlaBlaBla that has everyone talking." But none of the cars pictured are Kias. Yahoo should be embarrassed actually.

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Ibraar Hussain on Be Careful with Generative AI! (One Shot Story)

Comment posted: 08/08/2025

Ai, A without the I
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Richard Becker replied:

Comment posted: 08/08/2025

Another term is needed anyway. A.I. stands for Artificial Insemination, and has done for at least the last 80 years. Then I won't choke everytime I hear something like 'we use AI a lot in the office".

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