"Whoever perceives that robots and artificial intelligence are merely here to serve humanity, think again. With virtual domestic assistants and driverless cars just the latest in a growing list of applications, it is we humans who risk becoming dumbed down and ultimately subservient to machines."
— Alex Morritt
That is an AI rendered image, via chatGPT.
Here's how I requested it:
"Can you generate a photo-realistic image of a male Black-throated Blue Warbler perched on a twig, with a soft, out-of-focus green background, as if created by shallow depth of field?"
And that's what it came back with — it's only going to get better ... or is that worse?
What will records committees do? More on that in a future post.
In any case, I found two male Black-throated Blue Warblers on May 3rd at Pheasant Branch, which were among my earliest for this species. My personal record-early is April 30th. I updated my nifty BTBW calendar above accordingly. Generally, the peak for this species is coming up in a few days, so I might find a few more yet.
Here are all the Paralids I've found so far this spring:
That's it for now — I didn't do any nature photography over the weekend!