Tennessee Tourism Celebrates Real Photographers by Banishing AI Images

In the age of AI-generated photographs, Tennessee’s Department of Tourist Development needs potential guests to know its lovely sights are 100% actual.

Tennessee’s new tourism marketing campaign has a easy tagline: “Yeah, it’s real.” It comes with a bit checkmark-centric graphic, plastered excessive of real-life, real-world photographs shot from throughout Tennessee, like an authenticity watermark of kinds.

“Every day, millions of AI-generated photos are created,” the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development explains. “And while AI has a lot of potential, it’s not always used in the right way. Leading to feeds flooded with fake imagery and travelers who can’t even tell what’s real anymore. Until now.”

Tennessee Tourism’s resolution, the brand new “certified mark,” verifies {that a} picture of Tennessee’s pure wonders and vacationer points of interest is genuine.

“You can trust it’s a real view from a real destination you can really visit,” the state says.

It’s not only a easy mark, both. Each verified picture comes with metadata, exhibiting exactly the place and when the picture was captured and by whom. For instance, a photograph from October 12, 2023, of Reelfoot Lake State Park was shot by photographer Felipe Rincon utilizing a Sony a7R IV with a Sony FE 24-105mm f/4 G OSS lens.

Photographer Jared Kreiss used his Sony a7R V to seize a featured picture at Lost Creek Falls simply a few months in the past. He used a Sony 16-35mm f/2.8 GM lens at 26mm and f/16. Kreiss has a couple of different featured pictures, together with one from Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 2021, when he was utilizing an older Sony a7R III, and one other from 2023 capturing a fantastic bear portrait.

As Tennessee Tourism explains, it isn’t simply targeted on avoiding wholly AI-generated imagery for its new marketing campaign, any AI-based modifying is disallowed. That means no Generative Fill, no AI Style Transfer, and no AI-powered filters.

“Any AI-generated alteration that creates, adds, or changes reality” is prohibited.


Color changes, fundamental international edits, and eradicating sensor mud spots are allowed, so long as mud spot removing makes use of old-school therapeutic instruments.

This new marketing campaign is “a commitment to authenticity and a promise to travelers that, when it comes to Tennessee, what you see is what you get,” Mark Ezell, commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development tells Tennessee Lookout.

“We want to make sure travelers know when they look at photos on TNVacation.com, they can trust that what they see is a real place captured by a real photographer,” Ezell continues.

“I find it incredibly frustrating to see AI-generated images being passed off as photography of real places, and even more frustrating when people believe they’re real. To me, that’s deceptive,” photographer Jared Kreiss tells Tennessee Lookout. “It’s becoming harder and harder to tell real from AI. I am incredibly excited about this campaign and to know Tennessee’s tourism  department is working to preserve what is real. I think it is more important than ever to protect that. I really value that.”

It’s a incredible initiative that celebrates actual photographers taking precise, genuine photos of locations that actually exist and may look as lovely as they seem. Photos are among the many strongest methods for states, parks, and areas to encourage guests to return, and it’s important that the photographs folks see are consultant of the locations they hope to go to.

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Image credit: Tennessee Tourism. Featured photographs by Felipe Rincon and Jared Kreiss.