Cheap AI images have weakened the connection between a polished picture and the human work required to make it. Semioticians call a sign physically or causally connected to what it represents an index. A handmade image carries traces of its maker’s actions, but its appearance alone can no longer establish how it was produced. Brands have long displayed craftsmanship: Gucci brought artisans into its stores to demonstrate production in 2010. AI gives that practice another function: establishing that human work took place at all.
