Be Careful with Generative AI! (One Shot Story)

On July 17, 2025, more than 1,500 anti-Trump “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 (and 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 the image and look at the floor there, the bricks are smeared and off-color… while the floor everywhere else is well-defined.)

This is a good reminder that in our “AI Age,” we all need to be increasingly careful about the photos and videos we choose to 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 excellent columns. 

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

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