zlacker

The entire job of a codec is subjectively authentic, but lossy compression. AI is our best and in some ways easiest method of lossy compression. All lossy compression produces artifacts; JPEG macroblocks are effectively a hallucination, albeit one that is immediately identifiable because it fails to simulate anything else we're familiar with.

AI compression doesn't have to be the level of compression that exists in image generation prompts, though. A SORA prompt might be 500 bits (~1 bit per character natural English), while a decompressed 4K frame that you're trying to bring to 16K level of simulated detail starts out at 199 million bits. It can be a much finer level of compression.