Brilliant blue heron statue in Shadyside (photo by Kate St. John). Left=original photo , Right = [AI Enhance] turned it gray

12 August 2026

“Is it real or is it artificial intelligence (AI)?”

A decade ago only dedicated photographers and videographers had good editing tools because the software cost money and it took time to learn. But in the past two years AI became embedded in my cellphone photo editor. The tools are so easy to use I don’t need to know anything about how to make a good photo. I just look at it on my phone, click Edit, choose [Auto] and then [Enhance] or [AI Enhance]. It takes no training and no photo editing skills. The results are marvelous … in more ways than one.

As a matter of principle I do not use the AI editing tools because the result can be as inaccurate as autocorrect and the danger is that, just like autocorrect, I may send/post that fake result. Embarrassing typos, inaccurate photos.

The photos at top show, on the left, a brilliantly blue heron statue that I saw in Shadyside. Its color is why I took the picture. On the right is the AI Enhanced version, quite inaccurate. If this was a real bird I was documenting on an eBird checklist the AI Enhanced version is bad for science and will lead viewers astray. eBird doesn’t need altered photos. It needs truth.

eBird and Macaulay Library have noticed AI fakes in their media archives and have developed a new policy about photo uploads, described in their article: From Truth to Fake: The Threat of AI to Media Archives.

The ebird.org story leads with this AI enhanced photo of a green heron posted on an eBird checklist (photo is embedded from the article). Notice the caption. AI gave the bird a 3rd leg.

eBird’s caption: Do Green Herons (Butorides virescens) have three legs? No! But Google’s Gemini AI seems to think so. It altered this actual photo submitted to an eBird checklist.

From Truth to Fake: The Threat of AI to Media Archives describes why AI is a threat and includes additional photo examples. For instance, AI turned a South American species, the Epaulet Oriole (Icterus cayanensis), into a red-winged blackbird!

Meanwhile here’s a summary of the new policy in a screenshot from the article. See eBird & Macaulay Library’s full AI Policy here.

Policy Summary screenshot from eBird.org: From Truth to Fake: The Threat of AI to Media Archives