Why does it feel like AI chatbots are becoming dumber?

Over Exposed

Google is hellbent on crowding out search results with AI-generated “advice” — which is often flawed, sometimes with devastating consequences.

This week, during its splashy I/O conference, the company made yet another blunder. As The Verge reports, the tech giant showed off its Gemini AI offering suggestions for what to do when the lever on a manual film camera isn’t moving all the way — except that it made some genuinely horrible suggestions.

Among Gemini’s dubious “things you can try,” was a highlighted bullet point to “open the back door” of the camera to gently remove the jammed film — which as any film photographer knows, would expose most if not the entire roll, thereby ruining any photos you may have taken so far.

The blunder highlights glaring issues with the current crop of AI tools, which are still prone to confidently misleading users by hallucinating facts or wildly misinterpreting existing information on the web.

Searching for Meaning

It’s not even the first time Google has been caught showing its AI give misleading advice. Last year, Google’s chatbot, which was called Bard at the time, stated that NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope took the first picture of an exoplanet, or a planet outside of our solar system — which is blatantly false.

More recently, the company started testing its experimental AI search feature called AI Overviews — formerly known as Search Generative Experience, in yet another rebrand — on unsuspecting users who didn’t opt into the test.

Unfortunately, the feature is still stuck in the Stone Age. It can’t even reliably name fruits that end with “um.” Earlier this year, it was even caught pushing malware-laden spam sites.

With Google doubling down on AI, the future of the search we’ve come to love — and then tolerate — could soon look dramatically different. And that doesn’t bode well, considering its traditional search has already been overrun with AI-generated junk and scammers that exploit search engine optimization.

In short, we highly advise against using Google’s flawed AI to get help with a new hobby, especially when it involves risking an entire roll of film. Instead, we recommend the assistance of human experts who aren’t glorified plagiarism machines.

More on Google: Google Execs Say Employees Will Be Rewarded for Huge Profits With Fewer Layoffs

You asked for it, and we’ve done it. We came out with our own presets. We’re calling these the photojournalism presets because, well, they work great for just that genre. However, they’re also mostly designed around working with humans. So they’re fantastic for studio portrait photographers too. This article gives you visual examples of all 20 presets in our Photojournalism Presets Pack, as applied to various portraits we’ve taken over the years. And if you want, you can purchase them right here at our store.

The Phoblographer has a large database of portraits that we’ve shot over the years. So we’ve tested these presets on Canon, Nikon, Sony, Leica, Panasonic Lumix, Olympus, OM System, and Fujifilm RAW files. No matter what camera you own, you’re probably going to like these Lightroom presets.

Why Buy These Lightroom Presets

A total of 20 different presets make up our first Presets Pack. Ten of these are color-based and the remaining 10 are focused on black and white results. We developed these to ensure the results don’t overlap between presets, and keeping in mind that they are meant to help you edit with ease. Some of these are Adaptive presets, meaning they scan your photos for faces and skies and skilfully apply edit masks only to those areas. They were developed by us on Adobe Lightroom Classic and you can even adjust the intensity of the presets using the Amount slider in the Develop module

For those of you who’d like to use these presets on the go, we have good news for you. You can even upload these presets to Adobe Lightroom (formerly known as Lightroom Mobile), to be able to use them on your mobile devices.

Color Presets

Use the sliders below to see the effects of each preset on the portrait.

Black And White

These are available for purchase right now. You can buy the color or monochrome sets separately or buy both of them together at a discount. Visit our online store to buy them.

Celebrated at Photo London 2024, three new photography books offer a quirky, behind-the-scenes insight into three luxurious Belmond hotels and escapes – the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, the Caruso Hotel on Italy’s Amalfi coast, and Mount Nelson Hotel in Cape Town. In line with the LVMH-owned hospitality group’s sponsorship of the photography fair (16-19 May), images from the latest books in Belmond’s As Seen By series take over the Portico Rooms at Somerset House, the venue’s second-largest gallery space. 

The exhibition is an exciting display of work by photographers Coco Capitán, Letizia Le Fur and Rosie Marks, captured during their respective experiences at a Belmond destination. The images reflect their individual photographic approaches, but also their personal fascination with travel and the properties they have documented. 

See a new side to three Belmond hotels and escapes

Venice Simplon-Orient-Express by Coco Capitán

‘You stare through the train window, and that place where you are is both the same and not the same to the one you were a minute ago,’ wrote the London-based Spanish photographer Coco Capitán of one of her many gazing-out-the-window sessions during her time at the Belmond Venice Simplon-Orient-Express. Capitán’s photography is renowned for its spontaneity and precision, capturing beautiful, fleeting moments that would have otherwise vanished into the ether.

‘The power of the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express is undeniable. It is shrouded in mystery and glamour, very much like Agatha Christie’s novel [Murder on the Orient Express]. I aimed to portray a contemporary and updated vision while staying true to its lavish essence. Coming from a non-upper-class background, I sought to bring a down-to-earth experience to my images. The goal was to normalise the journey without neglecting the luxury of the Belmond experience. Having familiar faces around helped me achieve that sense of naturalness,’ Capitán tells Wallpaper*.

‘I have always loved travelling by train. There’s something about the old-world charm of analogue transport methods that appeals to me more than airports or planes, which always seem too crowded. What’s more inspiring than sitting on a train and gazing out the window? Time stands still, and you get transported to another world.

What I loved most about the experience was the sense of being at home on the move. Riding on a luxury train is such a unique experience because it feels like being in a five-star hotel on wheels. The bar was my favourite spot, with its unique moody atmosphere. I would sip on an espresso martini and play a table game to get myself pumped up for the night ahead.’

Caruso Amalfi Coast by Letizia Le Fur

Letizia Le Fur describes Belmond Caruso as a ‘place where even the stones seem to whisper secrets to the ear of the sun’. The French photographer, who graduated from the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in France in 1998 and first trained as a painter, has a distinctive visual style that goes beyond what meets the eye. Her visceral photography shows a whole new side to this property on the Amalfi Coast: one that feels otherworldly and enchanting.

During her time at Caruso, Le Fur sought to capture the timeless essence of the Amalfi Coast. ‘I wanted each image to feel like a small window open to a world full of mysteries,’ she says.

‘The air is filled with romance, and the property exudes the most vibrant colours. Caruso Amalfi Coast has a palpable history that hangs in the air like an invitation to dance with the past – it’s as if every street corner has its own story to tell. I found myself immersed in this lively theatre of the Mediterranean.’

Mount Nelson Hotel Cape Town by Rosie Marks

British photographer Rosie Marks brought her inquisitive eye to Belmond’s Mount Nelson Hotel in Cape Town, South Africa. In her series of photographs, she takes on the role of an observer, capturing the day-to-day moments of the hotel and its staff: a black cat caught in the act of stealing a cookie from a laid tea table, the newspaper break of one of the gardeners, the first person to cause a splash in the pool on a sunny day: Marks’ photography is sincere, energetic and evocative.

Read more about Belmond’s As Seen By photobooks by Coco Capitán, Rosie Marks and Letizia Le Fur at Belmond.com. The series is published by RVB Books and available from rvb-books.com