On the left is a more than century-old drawing of Grandma Rydberg. On the right is the photo version as interpreted by Adobe Firefly A.I.

The A.I. version doesn’t replace the old drawing for me, but it does give a really good idea of how Grandma looked when she sat for the artist. Printing it up and displaying it would be of great value, in my opinion, since we don’t have that many portrait photos of her when she was younger.

If used correctly, A.I. can fix, enhance, and even improve an old photo, but if not used correctly, like anything, the results can be detrimental. In this sort of use, it is just another kind of Photoshop, which has A.I. tools of its own.

I have a favorite 1996 Nintendo game, “Metroid”, and have played different versions that have been altered by people; one is extremely well done, having logically added and enhanced things that should have been accomplished on the original game. Another one was an example of someone who got access to the editing tools and went nuts, creating a frustrating version of the game that is almost unplayable.

I look at A.I. and Photoshop in regard to graphics in the same way; used correctly, it can be amazing and useful; used incorrectly… and horrible things can happen.

This photo is of my Great-Stepfather, and next to him is Great-Grandma, Great-Aunt Helen, and then Grandma Rydberg, all in Austria-Hungary perhaps right before The Great War (World War I).

If I am correct, they were somewhat well-off, but had to give up a lot to get to the United States because of what was going on in Austria-Hungary during that time.

On the left is an A.I.-restored (Adobe Firefly) photo of my Grandma Rydberg, from when she was seventeen years old in 1916, and still in Hungary. They left for America soon after that.

I didn’t want to take this photo out of its very old and odd frame, so considering that this is just an iPhone photo through the glass, with some light reflection, the A.I. did pretty well.