ERIC KIM.

  • WHAT IS THE ROLE OF PHOTOGRAPHERS IN THE AGE OF AI?

    So I have been having insane amounts of fun with ChatGPT, DALL-E, DALL-E 3, ChatGPT 4 (only available on the plus edition, only $20 a month!). To me, my thought is that it is the ultimate new creative tool in our creative tool kit as visual artists.

    One of the great epiphanies that I had while in Kyoto was this notion of visual artist; that we photographers are not simply photographers, but we are visual artists. Which means that our approach and goal to things is not just photos or not just photos for the sake of photos, but instead… using photography and our camera as a tool to produce and create new visual artwork.

    Until the Tesla AI humanoid bot can walk around as quickly and nimbly as you and take photos, you’re fine.

    Something that people don’t understand and don’t get; no no no, robots and AI and these bots won’t take your job. My personal prediction is that even within 30 years, humanoid AI bots will still be quite mediocre; only good for doing boring tedious tasks like automation line work producing cars or Tesla cars, but for the most part, let us consider and think about how nimble and agile even a two-year, nine month year-old child is.

    For example, Seneca. He is only two years, nine months old, and it is insane how coordinated he is, how agile he is, and how acrobatic he is. I have been teaching him funny things like jumping backwards, jumping sideways, doing downward up dogs etc.

    I think it is insane that even late at night before he sleeps, he could still run around and prance around, with so much vivacity and pure energy. And also a very interesting thing that I’ve observed; whenever he wants to put something down or pick something up from the floor, he always squats! Full sumo squat, ass to grass. Always. He never bends over like adults. Maybe if we adults mimic the physical activity of children more, we will become better.

    So what should we do?

    Very simple. First, download the official ChatGPT app to your phone or iPad, and immediately subscribe to the $20 a month paid model. Personally speaking, I quit using Adobe Lightroom about three years ago, ever since they switched to the subscription model. But this openAI stuff… This new ChatGPT4, and DALL-E 3… this is effing insane. Contrary to popular belief, I think AI and ChatGPT is insanely underrated. This literally might be the best $20 you spend in your life.

    For example, simple things you could do: once you have upgrade to the paid model, the paid subscription, you could select an image from your iPhone photo roll cameraroll, and you could ask ChatGPT to help analyze your photo, and give you a critique on your photo. This is insanely great; this was actually my first initial vision of arsbeta.com — creating some sort of automated, app that could actually give you instantaneous feedback on your photos, without the need of slow human intermediaries.

    Ultimately we still prefer the feedback and applause of other human beings. This is where I still think that Arsbeta.com is so phenomenal — you can still get real feedback from real human beings!

    But still, the big issue with ChatGPT is mostly a UI-UX one. A lot of the insanely great features are hidden, maybe I need to do some sort of consulting with open AI; shoot me an email at eric@erickim.com and I’ll give you some suggestions.

    And also, still my insane vision; I think ultimately… it has to be free! Open source, permissionless, and insanely easy to use. It should not be any more complicated than putting in a quarter and shooting aliens like space invaders. Or how simple it was to enter our cartridge in a super Nintendo, turn on the power and start playing! Also, it needs to simply be plug and play; even in today’s world, figuring out how to use Bluetooth such a pain in the butt. That is why I still prefer wires.

    We already have AI in our cameras

    One of the things that we forget is that we already have artificial intelligence in our cameras. For example on my Lumix G9 camera, there is a subject detect, face detect algorithm which makes photography much better! This is especially useful when you’re doing auto focus and video.

    The centaur approach

    Who or what is the best chess player? Not man versus man, not computer versus computer, but a synthesis of both man and computer. For example, the most formidable chess player would be a human being plus computer. I would actually think that the most interesting type of chess match would be two nerds, both with a laptop, duking it out together.

    I also even remember funny things like when I was a kid playing StarCraft, or playing counterstrike 1.6– I would always suspect, or think that maybe, a lot of these guys were cheating by using an aim bot, or map hacking. Even my best friend Aaron… who was by far the best StarCraft player that I knew, he was so good that he was thinking about going professional… I recall once when I was trying to do a secret drop on him, with my Goliaths and drop ships, he somehow knew beforehand; after watching the footage, I soon discovered that actually yes, he really was using a map hack.

    Then the really funny idea is that what if… people were permitted and actually encouraged to use all of these bots and hacks? Like I’m curious… If you had two professional StarCraft players, both with map hack on, how would the game end up? That there was no fog of war?

    Also another idea; what if teachers actually permitted their kids to always use ChatGPT, Google or whatever during class and on their homework and on tests etc.… and in fact, the grading wouldn’t be based on if they’re right or wrong, but the criticality of their thinking?

    Or, two nerds both with auto aim, aim bots playing counterstrike versus one another. Who would win? Or be superior? Or with any of these competitive video games, the professional gamers would be permitted to use all of these hacks and cheats? Who would win?

    This is also where I think things get interesting; a lot of people falsely believe that because of AI, there is no more reason to play chess anymore. But my creative thought is that actually… If AI can help us create new innovative strategies in chess, human, then it is a great idea.

    For example, just watch the LEE SEDOL GO documentary in which Dennis, the head of deep blue or deep mind, I forget whatever it was called, in which they created the early playing AI… LEE SEDOL was shocked and amazed by all of the “creative“ and in a bit of strategies that ALPHAGO did. As a consequence, the new innovations that AlphaGo did were integrated as part of new GO strategies.

    Which makes me wonder; what new chess strategies have yet been discovered, and AI can help us uncover?

    AI ART

    Therefore my suggestion is that I personally believe that all artists should be given free rein to all sorts of AI. Why? AI is just a tool for creative ideation, and at the end of the day, you do the final edits.

    For example, you could get AI to easily write a screenplay, but yet, you as the artist might think that it is either cheesy or generic. And that is the thing… AI cannot really do anything totally carte blanche or totally brand new. Can you imagine AI inventing Blockchain or bitcoin? No. Or can you imagine AI having the genius of Steve Jobs and getting rid of the keyboard on a phone? No. Or the genius of Steve Jobs, getting rid of all the USB hubs on the iPad or even the original Mac computer?

    Or the genius of a Kanye West and how he designed the Yeezy 350 shoes?

    AI can only repeat and iterate on the past, it cannot create a new future.

    So the question is, what is your role as a modern-day photographer?

    Obviously there are simple ones. People are still going to get married, and people will still want pretty photos of their wedding. It seems that actually, the most useful app here would be some sort of image sorting app.

    For example let us say that you’re a wedding photographer and you shoot 10,000 photos of a wedding. To have to review and trudge through all those images will take you a short lifetime. What if instead, you just shot all the photos, and the image sorting AI thing could help you quickly sort and filter all 10,000 images, and quickly get down to the best 50?

    If you’re interested in building this with me, send me your résumé at eric@erickim.com

    Creativity

    Ultimately, we make photos not because there is some sort of inherent economic valley behind it, we do it because it is fun!

    Even Seneca at two years, nine months old. He just did the cutest thing; while taking a bath, he figured out how to take the bucket, and put it on top of his head, making it look like a baseball cap, the same one that I wear at home. Then he asked Cindy to call me over to shoot some pictures of him; doing this cute shutter button icon hand gesture that I taught him how to do.

    Then afterwards, he wanted to press the playback button to review the photos; and when he saw the photos he laughed so insanely hard and wanted me to keep shooting photos!

    Having more fun in photography!

    Moving forward, my desire is to create and craft more workshops which are just plain fun! The idea is reawakening your own creative spirit, in photography.


    Now what?

    My personal suggestion is once again, download the ChatGPT app to your iPhone or iPad, subscribe to the 20 bucks model, upgrade to the period version by clicking the ChatGPT 4 icon in the top right corner.

    My suggestion is just experiment with it, have fun, and figure it out as you go! It doesn’t seem there is a right or wrong way to do things; radical experimentation is interesting here.

    Once you have upgraded to the subscription paid model, experiment on clicking the Camera icon and photographing stuff in the real world, and asking ChatGPT some questions like “what is going on here?”

    Or, click the picture gallery icon, and select up to three images of your art photos and ask ChatGPT to give you feedback.

    Of course, if you want real human feedback, upload your photos to arsbeta.com

    And also, simpler than ChatGPT; give the why app, Zen of ERIC chat bot a shot. It is designed to relentlessly ask you why? When judging your life goals or decisions. The simple thing:

    If you ask yourself the question “why”, at least five times, you gain a deeper truth about things.

    Now what?

    Think AI, think art, think hybrid and fusion. It is not zero sum; it is additive.

    ERIC


  • Culture Clash?

    I think a big problem in today’s world, whether interpersonal, within families, nations etc.… Is this issue of culture.

    For example, I am Korean, Korean American, born and raised in the states. Also, marrying Cindy, who is Vietnamese, Vietnamese American, born in refugee camp in Long Malaysia, being sponsored to the states, etc. Much of understanding Cindy, her mom, Her side of the family, is understanding that the refugee mentality is a quadrillion times different than what I was raised, coming from a rich and affluent family, coming to the states.

    For example, it seems that the refugee mentality is about frugality, economics, and positive. What does that mean? That means that too “waste money“, is a mortal sin. A sin against God. For example the simple act of keeping on a lightbulb when you aren’t using it… It is not an issue of money it is an issue of morality. Just for fuzzies, I calculated it with Chachi P4, how much it cost to run a single lightbulb all day and I think it mounted to three cents at most. Therefore keeping on a light for even an hour or two longer than I should, might only be 5% of a penny. Less than peanuts.

    However what I suppose is the critical thing to consider is that at the end of the day, it is a cultural war, a cultural clash.

    What is the solution? Just leave other people alone.

    For example, some issues that I’ve faced when it comes to American, Korean American behavior. The first one is about greeting. In Korean, Korean American culture, to greet somebody and get a response is an integral part of life. “To say, “ahnyeungee-gehsehyoh” and “ahnyungee-gah-seh-yoh” (and also get a response) is critical.

    Also in American culture, to say hello, and get a response it is normal.

    But I suppose in Vietnamese culture, maybe just Cindy‘s family, this is not common. It seems that people don’t really acknowledge each other’s existence, don’t make eye contact don’t say hello don’t say goodbye etc. This invokes my fury, however, I suppose if it is just the way that their family culture is, I should just tolerated, or just leave them alone.

    Perhaps I’m the tyrant?

    Then the realization… Perhaps the critical issue here is an issue of a culture clash. The issue is that everybody is trying to superimpose their culture on others, to do as they please.

    My way or the highway?

    What is a Nazi? What is a tyrant? somebody who tries to get you to do what they want you to do or what do you think you should do, rather than just leaving you alone.

    For example, an issue with shared or communal things, or when you’re just by yourself.

    For example, a big annoying I’ve had is in regards to lights. I always like all of the lights on, I think maybe for myself, I need the light. I need it to get me going.

    Bur for others, they seem sensitive to the light, like having too many lights on actually hurts their eyes or their head, and or perhaps it is a money economic thing. And also a funny theory, are women more sensitive to the light than men? Meaning that men prefer higher stimulation and higher lutz, nits, lux and light?

    Regardless, this is my thought:

    If you are sharing space with somebody else, and there is one person who is sensitive to the light, and would prefer to keep the light off, keep the light off.

    However, if you are by yourself, not disturbing nobody else, and then somebody invades your pace and turns off your light, this is what invokes my fury.

    Guns in America?

    I also think this is the tricky thing when it comes to guns in America. For example let us say that you are living by yourself on your own private range somewhere in Idaho whatever. Let us say that they like all of their guns or whatever. Then, nobody should be permitted to invade their property and take all of their guns.

    However the issue is when it comes to public, public spaces etc. For example, this insane notion of “conceal and carry“. The biggest issue here is an asymmetry;

    You know that you have a concealed gun on you, but I don’t.

    For example, let us say that some loser has a conceal and carry gun on him. And I don’t, and I don’t know that he does.

    Let us say that we get into some sort of altercation, or argument., Unwarranted, let us say that he is in an inferior position and feels threatened, he might shoot me with his gun and kill me, even though he is a “licensed”, gun holder.

    Perhaps a solution is actually a little bit more unorthodox; if one is going to have a gun in public, one should have it publicly displayed, on their holster for everybody to see.

    This was actually a really really random thing that I saw when I was traveling with Cindy, and we went to Penn State. I randomly saw an older man, with a cowboy hat, also ironically with the same Verbum five finger shoes I had entering the CVS with his gun proudly on his right hip.

    to me this was really interesting, because ultimately, because I knew that he had a gun on him, I made the obvious decision of not entering that premises. Also I like this idea that if you enter a party or a wedding that there be a public “gun check in.” if you checked in your coat, you should also check in your gun, like how they do it in gangster movies or John Wick. Whether we like it or not maybe everyone should be patted down?

    “Please have compassion!”

    Another funny thought; can you force other people to have compassion? No.

    For example, the big issue with the Middle East, Israel versus Palestine, Jewish people Jewish hate, anti-Semitism etc.

    What I am currently witnessing is that both sides is trying to get American public to have compassion and empathy for them, and to paint the other side as the bad guys. Yet, unfortunately this doesn’t seem to be very effective. Why?

    First of all, people in America don’t really understand what Israel is. For example, people in America abstractly know that Israel is a state somewhere in the Middle East, but there isn’t a strong understanding or attachment between the notion of Israel as a state, Israeli, and Jewish people. Even for myself as a UCLA undergraduate educated, born in the barrier my whole life, growing up with a lot of Jewish Jewish American friends, and not being weird to see the star of David or the little Jewish hat, even it took me a long time to understand What Jewish, Judaism is and was. For example, Seinfeld. I had zero idea that it was a show about Jewish, Jewish American culture. I also had no idea that Steven Spielberg was Jewish, and I also had no idea that a lot of Hollywood, media was built and run by Jewish people and personalities, even that John Stewart was Jewish but he changed his last name to sound more “American“.

    Are Jewish people “white”?

    The interesting juicy question that I’ve asked a lot of people, whether they be typical Caucasian, or Jewish, Jewish American, orthodox or unorthodox or reformed etc., is this:

    “Are jewish people ”white”?”

    After hearing all of the responses, and also having some time to think on my own, my personal takeaway is this:

    No.

    Why? In America, it seems a lot of successful people are closet Jewish. Meaning that they are Jewish, have a Jewish mother or a Jewish heritage, yet for the fear of persecution have hidden it.

    Why? People have been scape code for millennia. Why, just read the first recorded history of the Jews, by the Roman historian Tacitus? (Need to check this later):

    Essentially he said many things — the gist:

    The Jewish people are a mean, despicable group. They do not enter inter-marry with other races, they only believe in one God, they don’t share gods, etc. Their religious worships are strange and mean.

    Also, according to him, the reason why Jewish people performed circumcision on male children was to differentiate themselves with others. Personally speaking as a Roman Catholic, I am circumcised and always wondered this issue of circumcision. The general spiel we get is that we get circumcised for sanitary reasons, or aesthetic reasons. But because Roman catholicism is essentially Judaism 2.0, (let us not forget that Jesus was Jewish), the tradition continued.

    Who is the bad guy here?

    What do I find a little bit bizarre is that Israel, wants the whole world to be compassionate towards Israel, yet, everybody knows that Israel is strong, the Israelis have one of the most formidable military on the planet, apparently both women and men are trained in the military.

    Also, the US military and department of defense, head commander Austin said that America has a “ironclad” commitment to Israel. What does that mean?

    What this means is that the reason why America is so committed to Israel is because America wants to also defend her own personal interests in the Middle East, and they also want a launchpad to patrol the area and overall perimeter. The same reason why America bailed out South Korea via the IMF, And they want to keep their positioning, their strategic positioning in Asia and east Asia.

    Do we have compassion for the strong?

    I think as a general bias, at least in America we root for the underdogs. Let us not forget that in fact America was once the underdog, the general narrative goes that the British were the bad guys, and the scrappy Americans went to America and search for freedom liberty etc.

    For myself personally, I probably empathize stronger with people from Palestine, Palestinians etc. Why? I think when America and the other countries were diving up the land in the middle east, the reason why they “gifted” Israel to Jewish people was this:

    They wanted to make a strategic outpost for US military control in the region.

    I am not 100% certain, but I would surmise that in fact, a lot of US military investment went into Israel, and also a lot of great Israeli innovations have actually percolated to the states.

    Let us also not forget that some of the greatest thinkers and innovators, many of them are Israeli. For example, Daniel Kannemann and Amos Tversky are unabashedly Israeli, from Israel, Israeli American.

    Israel?

    I’ve never been to Israel, but I’ve met many Israelis. I have nothing but good things to say about people from Israel. Many of them I have met are good-looking, tall, highly intelligent, have a strong world view, and also very global in thinking. Also when they talk about the military and Palestine in the Middle East, they are all a little bit low-key and hush-hush about it. kind of like how America is in regards to our military intervention all around the world.

    Whenever I meet people who are Palestinian, people in the states, a lot of great innovators I’ve met in the world of Internet tech entrepreneurship, even crypto, many of them Palestinian. Or from Palestine. Why? When you’ve had everything taken from you, that entrepreneurial spirit is integrated into your soul body and worldview, and you come to America the land of opportunity.

    Even one of the new friends I’ve made at the gym, a successful 70-year-old Israeli American man who immigrated to the states from Israel when he was 15 years old, told me… “Of course we went to America, the land of opportunity!”

    So what should America do about things?

    I have some simple suggestions:

    First, don’t have an opinion about politics, if you have a strong opinion, enlist in the military and do something about it. Doesn’t matter whether you are man or woman, trans or whatever.

    Skin in the game?

    What I believe is the next frontier is in the realm of ethics. Why? Ethics is true power. Whoever controls ethics controls the people.

    Why? Ethics is the little pretty on your shoulder who is always watching, and which governs your thought behaviors, your physical behaviors etc.

    I have a funny joke: just ask somebody “what do you really do when you’re watching Google incognito? Or, that night, when everyone is asleep or you are in your room by yourself, and you turn on your VPN and go to pirate bay… What do you download, torrent, or mirror?”


    Next steps?

    I would say strive to become more intelligent, more knowledgeable, more wise, more practical, and also have more skin in the game. Nas seem to start that every opinion you have must also have a correlating physical behavior associated with it, which actually is impacted in the real world.

    The real world

    Also a very very very very practical thought I have:

    No more discussions on the Internet.

    Why? ChatGPT4 is so insanely good now that it is so so so so so so insanely easy to make some sort of bought, that impersonates a user online, a Reddit user, etc.… Can you imagine forging a false relationship with somebody on the Internet, with Internet forums, etc.?

    Therefore, the ultimate skin in the game is if you have some sort of discussion, argument, debate about anything… Make sure to do it real life in the flesh.

    For example, for the most part I am anti-Donald Trump, but I also find him hilarious, and also, I actually think some of his ideas are good. For example, I think Donald Trump‘s anti-China policy is a good one; him trying to band TikTok in America was actually very good idea. Why? The biggest issue in today’s world is With all these young kids on TikTok, do they not know is a Chinese company? This is a low-key propaganda way of China inoculating the American youth with Chinese ideals. Same thing goes with league of legend, Tencent games etc.… It is all RIOT, owned by a Chinese company.

    Is China bad? No. However, I think with America the best way to think about China is that they are a “frenemy“— part friend, part enemy, but mostly it is all for show.

    For example UCLA versus USC; ultimately nobody really cares. So many people I know when UCLA is undergrad and ended up going to USC for graduate school med school or dental school or law school etc. Funny enough it doesn’t seem to go the other way.

    What can and what should you do as an individual?

    I was also experimenting with the new ChatGPT voice, the audio of the voice is insanely good. Kind of like the movie “her“, with a personal AI assistant women that he falls in love with, or maybe even in Blade Runner 2049, the beautiful AI that he falls in love with, funny enough that Ryan Gosling is also low-key an android.

    Ultimately things I would not trust include podcast, because I bet you already right now, there are fake podcast AI voice things out there, spewing out some sort of nonsense.

    What can you trust? People in the flesh, YouTube vlogs… Why? As long as you can see a real human face and a real human voice at the same time, preferably not looking super cartoony or fake or 3-D animation generated… You know that they are real and their opinions are real.

    Also, what you create must be open source, permission list, maybe on the block chain, on Hackable, impossible to take down, and not hosted on any foreign site or website.

    This means no wordpress.com, which is actually censored in Vietnam and mainland China. Also, truth be told I think eventually, sooner or later, even normal websites will get censored, sooner or later.

    So what can you do?

    It seems that, at least for now… Email is not censored. If you have some sort of open source permission less newsletter, hosted by sendy.co — at least one thing that cannot be tampered with is accessing and contacting other human beings.

    in today’s world, it seems that people check their email more frequently than they even check social media. And whether or not we like it, even though I personally hate email, it looks like at least in our lifetimes, people will not stop using email. Social media will come and go, this includes Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, (Twitter is already gone), Snapchat, etc.

    Even within my short lifetime, I was born in 1988 and currently 35 years old, I have already seen the rise and fall of Xanga, live journal, my space, GeoCities, Alta Vista, etc.

    Create your own new carte Blanche culture?

    There are a lot of things we could do, things we cannot do, things we could change and things we cannot change.

    It seems that one thing we cannot do is change the culture of others. I cannot suddenly start forcing Jewish people to eat pork, I cannot force Islamic people not too fast, etc. Also when it comes to our families, we cannot change the culture of other families. My personal thought is dip out, create your own new family culture, fresh and anew.


    Fin.

  • How to Be a Visionary?

    The notion of “visionary“, comes from the notion of vision. That is, what is your creative vision, your life vision, your art vision, or your idealized vision of the world?

    First, I think we need to deposit some ideals. The weird modern-day notion is that it is not considered virtuous to be idealistic. I consider this thing, because when all the kid growing up, it was all about idealism optimism, happiness and joy, changing the world, and everything was much more carefree. Think about all the fun Eddie Murphy movies, Robin Williams, etc. What they make a flubber in today’s world? Or even a rush-hour movie?

    Things you really care for?

    My open source vision, open source photography, the true game changer. The one that up ended all of these Anemic photo book publishers, honestly 99.99% of photo books on education all are weak. ERIC KIM totally disrupted the photography information market. And this legacy shall outlast me.

    What is the etymology of legacy?


    I shall make a monument more lasting than bronze!

    I think one of the greatest and most noble thoughts uttered by Horace the ancient Roman poet was his idea that he would make artwork more lasting than bronze!

    My funny life ambition is I want to have an army of children, all named after my favorite philosophers poets thinkers and innovators.

    The reason why I think Elon Musk is so great is that nobody will ever forget who he is, his legacy, or his creations. SpaceX, Tesla, maybe even x.com will outlive him. I still think it is so freaking genius that he purchased x.com… The most beautifully sublime domain name of all time. In fact, I believe for innovation, the future is still Internet, the Web, the World Wide Web, as well as the Internet, Internet domain names etc. In fact I am currently on the rampage buying out domain names, hungry and eager to colonize the web.

    Why be a visionary?

    I suppose the very pragmatic thought is why be a visionary?
    First, I think life is just more fun and interesting. Whether you are right or wrong, successful or not, rich or poor, whatever… It all don’t matter.

    The human element.

    let us never forget that at the end of the day, it all comes down to the human element. The point ain’t to create things for the point of making them, but… The point and purpose is for the sake of others, other human beings etc.

    Insanely epic and grand structures?

    Amazon goals

    The funny thing with Amazon is that everyone loves to hate on Amazon and critique it, yet everybody I know has an Amazon prime subscription. The simple heuristic:

    One should not be permitted to criticize or critique something if one has an active subscription to it.

    For example, all of this yada yada yada about workers being taken advantage of, these poor Amazon delivery workers are these poor Amazon supply workers etc. Yet if you really care, you would have skin in the game and actually cancel your Amazon prime subscription. Rather than keeping your Amazon prime subscription and just criticizing it.

    Why does everyone hate on Jeff Bezos?

    Actually in terms of innovators I think one of the most underrated innovators is Jeff Bezos. Why? His insanely grand vision, how he got so swollen, and also, he has real balls and skin of the game.

    What actually made me win his respect, and gain his respect was the fact that when he got caught red-handed cheating on his wife, with that Newporter reporter, what happened was he publicly wrote a medium blog post article outlining the blackmail and sabotage, including all of the juicy details. This is a true man, a true Mench.

    *

    how to have more visionary thoughts?

    A very simple suggestion I have is this:

    Tried to walk at least 50 miles a day.

    The more you share the wealth, the wealthier you will become

  • ERIC KIM BODYBUILDER

    ATLAS FLEX

    All natural Flex:

    Beast GAINZZ

    Fitness also is a broad concept?

  • AI ART

    EK AI: