AI Headshots Aren’t Really Free…4 Ways It’ll Cost You
As a mom and a business owner running my own photography studio, I know that life gets busy for all of us, and I love finding ways to make life more efficient. But there are some shortcuts that can cause more trouble than they’re worth, and using an AI headshot is one of them.
It might seem like a quick way to save yourself the time and cost of a professional headshot photo shoot, but it’s likely to cost you in other ways you probably don’t realize. Consider these risks that are, unfortunately, always possible with AI headshots.
Take a Controversial Stance (If Unintentionally)
AI is a hotly debated and political issue - a lot of people are opposed to it because of its environmental impact, privacy and ethical concerns, risks for misinformation, or other reasons. Even if you’re not exactly an AI evangelist, using an AI headshot as the literal face of your professional brand creates the impression that you are, which is likely to turn off some customers. By contrast, no one will see a genuine photo as you taking any particular stance at all on AI, so you don’t alienate either side of the debate.
Raise Questions About Your Professional Performance
The purpose of having a professional headshot is to craft your image as someone who takes your job seriously and is dedicated to your business or your career. Using an AI headshot, though, might hurt your professional brand more than it helps.
To many people, an AI headshot is a way to cut corners. When you have an AI headshot as the first impression you make online, your potential clients, colleagues, bosses, or customers might then wonder whether you’d use AI in the services they hire you for and whether they can trust the services you provide.
Clients are already cautious about this after numerous stories have come out about unethical and unreliable uses of AI, such as attorneys using AI-written court documents in which the AI fabricated information and sources. You don’t want them to question from the start whether you would do the same.
Stop You from Standing Out
We all know that AI headshots are pretty easy to spot. Part of the reason for this is that they’re typically very cookie-cutter and similar to each other, and attempts to modify them often look less natural, or they might fix one thing but incorrectly change something else at the same time, so you can spend a lot of time and tokens going around and around trying to get a result you like. Ultimately, you probably still end up with a headshot that looks a lot like everyone else’s.
With professional headshots, on the other hand, I customize them specifically to you and how you want to represent yourself, so we can have full control over the finished product.
Make You Vulnerable to Image Use That Affects Your Reputation
I’ve noted this in previous blogs too, but AI-created images aren’t protected by copyright law, so once your AI headshot exists, it’s fair game for anyone to use however they want. Anyone could use it to put your face on an ad for something you don’t support, or to use it in other ways that damage your reputation both professionally and personally - the sky’s the limit. A headshot taken by a photographer, though, is immediately protected by copyright law so you have full control over your image.
AI headshots might seem cost-effective at first, but they could cost you more than you realize in lost business, damage to your reputation, and more. For a safer bet, contact Jaimié Birtel Photography for professional headshots.
