06/02/2026
Your community is full of talented photographers, videographers and designers. People who live there, who know your place, who have spent years building the skills to tell its story well. They are not hard to find. They are your neighbors.
So when a business or organization posts AI-generated imagery instead of hiring one of them, that is not a neutral decision. That is a choice.
Recently someone commented on an AI-generated post from a local organization: “Amazing photo!” The organization replied warmly and said nothing. Did not disclose, did not correct, just accepted the compliment and moved on. I (Ellen) can’t stop thinking about it, because it was not an accident ... It was a decision to let people believe something that was not true.
Here is what that decision costs: The photographer does not get hired. The videographer loses another gig to a generator. The designer watches another potential client go a different direction. One by one, the people who built the creative economy of the town stop being able to sustain themselves here. They leave. They pivot out of the work entirely. And when they go, they take with them the institutional knowledge, the visual history, the embedded understanding of this place that no prompt will ever replicate.
This is the trickle effect and it’s not hypothetical. It’s already happening.
To be clear about where I stand: I am not above using AI. AI has helped my business grow in real, meaningful ways. Suggestions through a creative block, building systems, streamlining operations. I use it and I recommend it in the right contexts. This is not an argument against the tool. It is an argument for knowing what it should never replace, and for being honest when you do use it.
Choosing a generated image over a local creative professional is not a resource decision. It is a statement about whose work has value.
Disclose your AI usage. It is required and it is the bare minimum. And then ask yourself whether your neighbor two streets over could have done it better.
They could have.