Digital photography in terms of CAMERAS not movies. People who made film for cameras, who developed film, anything to do with old school cameras.

And TV was going to put movies out of business too. (You might not be old enough to remember)

Also, you and I are off on a tangent here. History is replete with things being replaced by technology and putting people out of business.

Streaming, put Blockbuster and others out of business. (Ironic.,.since so many here Stream their WAM)
MP3 put making albums, cassettes and CD's out of business
Email put all fax machine companies out of business
Smartphones put landlines, payphones, pagers and all things related out of business
Amazon has all but destroyed brick and mortar stores
Online travel booking has put virtually every travel agency out of business
Online news is putting the entire printing industry along with newspaper and mags into the toilet
Online banking has killed bank teller jobs

There are a TON more. It's part of the cyclical nature of business.

I have it all in a timeline I helped create a few years back if you want it.

I think A.I. will have it's day in a number of areas, some good, some bad, but I also believe it's going to be like Y2K in a few areas. Much ado about nothing. Already, the human contact issue is being talked about in a number of business that simply can't, or won't use A.I.

Robby

And yet DSLR and Mirrorless users have been trying to emulate look of medium format, Kodak film and Arri Alexa since their inception lol

Just because it's new, doesn't necessarily mean it's as good or better or be replaced for that matter. Film cameras are still very much alive and well and in fact, there is Minolta 35mm I have my eyes on

My concern with A.I. is not just around media and making content. A.I. will never replace the skills and creativity of humans. If we treated A.I. like the effects of Skynet I think we would be doing the Y2K thing. There is a second Y2K dealing with Linux that has different applications because of how the interaction is with Linux, but that is all different.

A.I. is going to put people out of work in worse ways than the assembly line, Amazon, Streaming etc. did. Those are comparisons that industry specific. A.I. and the way it is used and being developed and who is bribing for its development are going to shape how it is used. Streaming only replaced Blockbuster (Except Bend OR), Hollywood Video etc. But A.I. will replace people in every profession out there. This is not just limited to our little corner of the world. For me, if I can fight in our little corner of the world against it I will.

All that said, the work being done with A.I. on restoring movies with the upscaling has been pretty good. The way that Paul and Ringo used A.I. to mix John's song and put in some of George to give us an unreleased Beatles song was amazing. That is where I am personally torn. Because the advancements of the uses of A.I. that I can appreciate require the use of A.I. that I don't like or agree with.

Nonsense! And I told my neighborhood blacksmith that just the other day.

The hysteria in this discussion is amazing. And why I will now climb back into my bunker.

In my case, no one here makes WAM that caters to my interests (sure, some *technically* tick the boxes, but "technically" doesn't cut it when it comes to visual pleasure). On top of that, my specific fetish (ultra-formal attire with jewelry, styled hair, etc) is prohibitively expensive for me to engage in in real life (hence the main reason I only actually get my dresses wet and not messy).

I've looked into customs to fulfill my desires, and the costs are even further beyond the average custom price because most models just don't have the type of stuff I'm into in their wardrobes, and if they do, they aren't willing to trash them. So on top of the cost of the custom, I'd have to buy all the items (the producers I looked into don't accept Goodwill lingerie, and in some cases, wouldn't accept used clothing in general, so the dress and shoes and everything would also have to be brand new), pay for shipping, hope the items I bought are what was actually pictured, and then hope the models go through with the whole process of getting dressed up fancy with hair and makeup and everything, and perform in a way I'll enjoy.

For the customs I looked into, I'd be looking at a full month's pay or more, just for a single-model, single-scene 30-minute video. For a producer, you might eventually recoup those costs by selling it in your store (probably not though, since my custom would be so niche). For me? I get a video that may or may not even satisfy what I was looking for in the first place, and am out a month's pay either way.

You belittling potential customers for not being able to afford customs is one of the reasons people like me don't bother trying for customs anymore. AI is a bandaid for that problem, but as many have said here, AI just doesn't have the same benefits as real people doing WAM. Many of us who use AI for WAM purposes would gladly buy customs if we had the money to afford them. And I'm pretty sure 90+% of us AI users would drop AI if we had both the money and a partner/models to produce our own.


All that said, I'll make my own AI stuff but will never try to sell it, and am very unlikely to buy anyone else's AI-produced WAM (with the exception of AI use in editing, as Nostalgic Erotic Prod mentioned). I genuinely want human-produced WAM to remain human-produced.