Why Did An AI-Powered Photo Booth Cause Controversy?

In almost every corporate event, convention, festival and exhibition, a photo booth is a welcome sight, bringing people closer together either as peers, colleagues, friends or romantic partners.

A major reason for this is that whilst the technology behind a modern booth can be complex and customisable, the fundamental principle is simple; a photo booth captures real moments of happiness and closeness and provides the user with physical and digital copies almost immediately afterwards.

One major exception to this, as reported by digital news outlet Bleeding Cool, was an AI-powered photo booth that was installed and prominently displayed at Toronto’s FanExpo Canada, in a situation that led to police intervention.

The issue was primarily the location; the booth offered free AI portraits of attendees in a range of different styles from horror to fantasy to anime.

However, the technology, described in one lawsuit reported by the BBC as a “bottomless pit of plagiarism”, was located and prominently displayed at Artist’s Alley, a section of the FanExpo convention where independent artists, illustrators and small-scale comic book creators would sell their merchandise.

The booth was, therefore, seen not as a way to capture the fun moments of what would otherwise have been a great day, but a threat to the art community of the region, particularly since some of the artists were selling hand-made sketches and portraits.

This led to a protest by artists and their supporters, which in turn led to the police being called, as one update on Instagram demonstrates.

As this was Canada, the officer brokered a deal where the protest would disperse as long as the artists could talk to the manager of the AI photo booth.

The irony is that had the booth been a conventional photo booth, it would have been embraced by the convention, the users and everyone involved, but the addition of such a controversial technology put a blemish on the day for many people.