Here’s a view of Wayne Street, looking north, from the sidewalk in front of First Presbyterian Church. The large building on the right-hand side is the old Milledgeville Hotel, where comedian Oliver Hardy first fell in love with show business. Reads the Georgia Historical Society marker: “In 1903 Emily Norvell Hardy took over management of the hotel. She moved into the hotel with her two youngest children, including eleven-year-old Norvell who would later become known to the world as comedian Oliver Hardy. After his mother left Milledgeville in 1910, Oliver Hardy remained to take a job as a projectionist at the city’s first movie theater, the Palace, located across the street from the Milledgeville Hotel. It was at the Palace that Oliver Hardy resolved to become an actor in motion pictures.”
Artificial intelligence is here, and what it means for the future is uncertain.
In the meantime, though, it sure is great for historians and bringing old black-and-white photos to life.
A series of AI-powered images recently began appearing on the Milledgeville Memories Facebook page. The images run the gamut from the old north/south river bridge to the old Milledgeville Hotel. The man behind the images is Dutch Henderson, Baldwin County’s foremost amateur historian. A “history enthusiast” would be an understatement. Henderson seriously can look at any brick in downtown Milledgeville and tell you where it was made. He owns so much Milledgeville history that it barely fits in his storage unit.
Basically, Henderson uploads old black-and-white photos to ChatGPT on his computer. ChatGPT is a “large language learning model” that essentially acts as a really advanced chatbot. From there, Henderson gives ChatGPT a series of “prompts” to make the reimagined images as accurate as possible.
“It can take some time. Certain aspects might be off, so you have to tell it to focus on certain things in the photo,” Henderson said. “It’s a process, and it can be a little time-consuming.”
Nevertheless, Henderson added that “anybody can do it.”
“It’s really not that hard. I promise,” he said.
ChatGPT really excels at bringing old family photos to life, according to Henderson. Once you upload a photo of the same person from four different angles, ChatGPT does the rest and recreates the person in full color and with relatively incredible detail.
“My family has thrown a bunch of old photos my way since I started doing this,” mused Henderson.
Here’s a really gloomy quote to end an otherwise upbeat newspaper article. “I think that (artificial intelligence) is going to be the downfall of human life, to be honest with you,” Henderson said. “I don’t trust it one bit.”