‘This is a warning’: the impacts of using AI to steal images – or sell horses
Stripping watermarks to avoid paying for pictures and potentially misrepresenting horses for sale are among the issues
The use of AI in the horse world could have legal implications, equestrians are warned, and a negative effect on businesses.
Photographer Penny Fillingham, who specialises in rural life, field sports and portraits, spoke up after she noticed AI-related issues. It came as photographs that appear to have been at least enhanced with AI have been used in sales ads for horses.
Ms Fillingham is concerned about business; she had not thought AI would affect her as it “could never run miles across fields whatever the weather or stand in the middle of nowhere at a jump” but last year noticed a “huge” drop in sales.
She became concerned people were using AI to remove her watermarks from images.
“I’d noticed a worryingly scary drop in sales,” she told H&H. “At first I thought it must be because everyone’s now wearing GoPros and filming their own stuff – but then I noticed this chap’s photographs that were mine.”
Ms Fillingham said years ago, her photos were often stolen so she now used a big watermark. She believes people realise now that downloading or screen-grabbing pictures without paying is theft, and that sharing watermarked pictures is generally frowned upon.
“But I saw the pictures on Facebook,” she said. “I contacted the chap to say the website wasn’t showing that he’d purchased them, and had he used AI to strip the watermark off, and he said, ‘Yes, I was just trying it out, it’s interesting, isn’t it, how powerful AI is?’”
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Ms Fillingham said the man then did pay for some of the stolen pictures, which she said looked very odd owing to the watermark removal, but not all. She warned that if this practice continues, photographers will be forced out of business.
“This is a warning”
Penny Fillingham
“This is a warning,” she said. “People like me who make a ‘just getting by’ income out of a creative industry will be gone within a few years if you use AI to steal or recreate our work. I will not be there in the rain capturing that once-in-a lifetime hedge hop, standing in a stream as you leap over it. I simply won't be there at all and you’ll have to make do with the unreality of making fictional images that look creepy and crap.
“I know I’d much rather live in a real world where people can keep doing the creative jobs that benefit all of us than in a fantasy land created by a computer.”
Ms Fillingham added that AI images have improved; a year ago, issues such as extra equine legs usually gave them away but many are now better. Some spotted on online ads include horses appearing to jump big fences or move well – but the fence is the wrong way round or, as in the image above, the hooves do not appear to touch the ground.
David Cowan is an assistant professor in law at Maynooth University and associate research fellow in legal studies at the University of London. He told H&H it is often said the law tries to keep up with technology but he does not agree; he believes new tech just brings new ways of committing the same crimes.
“If someone’s trying to sell a horse and has used a photograph that’s misrepresenting it, for instance making it look more capable or healthier than it is, you could potentially make a claim against them if there’s any misrepresentation,” he said.
“So the technology doesn’t really change that. You’ve still got the basic problem that somebody is advertising something and they’re misrepresenting it, all you’ve changed is the means of the misrepresentation and the skill and the dimensions of it.
“The real impact AI has had is to change the dimensions of the problem to be more global and more difficult to track.”
Doing beyond the acceptable
Dr Cowan pointed out that there is a big difference between choosing a photo that shows a horse at its best, well turned out and jumping a big fence well, for example, and using AI to alter pictures.
“The issue people are getting into with AI is that they are altering, making a positive act of doing something beyond what’s acceptable within general marketing terms,” he said.
Dr Cowan said some use of AI, such as brightening a background, might be acceptable; using AI to disguise a blemish or increase the size of a jump, for example, is different.
“I suggest that sellers need to think about how they are using AI and being transparent on disclosing its use, as well as keeping audit trails in how they have used AI,” he said. “This would be good for consumer and professional alike, and while there are some developments in producing AI guidelines, it is important that equine bodies create a standardised set of guidelines for AI use specific to the equine world as soon as possible.”
Gavin Hetherington of GH Sport Horses used this AI-enhanced picture of a grey, and others, in sales ads on social media but has since removed them.
“We got too much drama online from using them; we’re not going to use AI any more,” he told H&H. “We were just changing the background; it was photos from a previous customer and the background looked a bit messy, but we didn’t realise it made so many changes.
“It did that itself; changed bits of the bridle and feet, the riders, it didn’t just change the background. It came to light when we posted on Facebook, and we thought ‘We won’t do that again’.”
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Eleanor is an experienced journalist who spent over eight years working for local and national newspapers before joining H&H as news editor in March 2016. Passionate about equine welfare and exposing the truth, Eleanor has reported on all aspects of the industry, from Brexit to anti-bullying campaigns, and from dressage rules to mules. Her sport of choice is showjumping, in which she competes her own horses, and she also enjoys reporting at local jumping shows through to international championships.