Never AI. Always reality. Only film: The 6-word promise that's building a worldwide community.



What is real?

I know that sounds like I'm trying to "blow your mind, man." But I don't mean it in some kind of hippy-dippy, dorm-room philosophizing kind of way.

They want a place where they know they'll be seeing the world as it is, where they can drop their defenses against being fooled.

In 2026, "What is real?" is a very pressing question.

Won't get fooled again

If you've spent any time on X, Instagram, or Facebook, you've probably gotten used to thinking about reality. Namely when coming across the countless AI-generated photos and videos flooding your timeline.

Some, of course, are obviously fake. A penguin shaking hands with a polar bear on a dock while a moose looks on from a sailboat? Most likely AI. But with others it's not so easy.

Take that photo of the beautiful sunrise over those shining snow-covered mountains. Looks real ... but it isn't. Neither is that perfectly convincing woman talking about the scheduling app that helped her organize her life.

Unless you are exceedingly discerning, you've probably been fooled by AI, even if just for a few seconds. You shouldn't feel bad, and you shouldn't feel like a dupe, even though you probably do. We weren't made for this world of images that look 99.99999% real but are 0% so. What in our past would have ever prepared us for this world? Seeing is believing? That may have been true once upon a time, but no more.

Shutter island

There are a lot of implications here for society. How do we live in a half reality, half anti-reality world? How do we organize a society around truth when the truth is constantly muddied by false images and videos? How do we even talk to each other if we can't reach a consensus on what's in front of us? These are big questions without clear answers.

But on a smaller, more granular, human level, I think something interesting is happening: People find themselves aching for more truth, more reality. Not everyone, of course. Some are going full steam into the Kafkaesque world of reality-nihilism. But others see the trap, the chaos, and the shallow ugliness of anti-reality.

Earlier this year, I started a project by the name of Film 20. Essentially, it’s a place of pure reality in the form of film photography. It’s an archive of photos from real people and real places all around the world. No iPhone photos are allowed, no digital photos from DSLRs either. Only film; only reality.

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O.W. Root

Reality hunger

At first, our followers were mostly film photographers and film aficionados. But an interesting thing happened in the past few months. The account blew up in a substantial way. There are now nearly 29,000 people following Film 20, an account dedicated to documenting reality through the eyes of film photographers.

Those 29,000 people aren't all photographers, though some are — our DMs are flooded with submissions from wonderful photographers from all over. They aren't just following for the nice photos either. I know because the primary sources of growth have been derived from posts underscoring the purpose of Film 20.

"Never AI. Always reality. Only film."

People — 29,000 people — want a feed of reality and only reality. They want a place where they know they'll be seeing the world as it is, where they can drop their defenses against being fooled.

Cultivating authenticity

I know that everyone doesn't have this same kind of yearning for reality. I understand that these 29,000 are not representative of the general population in 2026. But I don't think this desire is going away, and I don't think the awareness of the shallow falseness of digital AI imagery is a short-term blip. The further we move into the AI world, the stronger this yearning for reality will be.

The bleed of fake video and imagery into every corner of our digital world will continue for the foreseeable future. It will be annoying. Next year you will only see more fake videos than the last.

So whether it is film photography, live music, local food, or real people with real emotions, the future of reality is one that will need to be cultivated and earnestly sought out. Just like we try to eat healthy and read good books, we will need to consciously make the choices that lead us toward reality in every way we can.

Reality is good for the body, mind, and soul.

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Tesla workers violated drivers' privacy, shared embarrassing car camera footage, lawsuit alleges



A California man is suing Tesla over privacy concerns, saying the company's employees shared "embarrassing" footage captured on drivers' car cameras, Reuters reported Wednesday.

"I’m bothered by it because the people who buy the car, I don't think they know that their privacy is, like, not respected … We could see them doing laundry and really intimate things. We could see their kids," one ex-employee said, as cited in the suit.

"We could see inside people's garages and their private properties. Let's say a Tesla customer had something in their garage that was distinctive, you know, people would post those kinds of things," said another.

"Any normal human being would be appalled by this," David Choffnes, director of the Cybersecurity and Privacy Institute at Northeastern University in Boston said of Tesla's alleged sharing of sensitive footage.

The class-action lawsuit filed Friday targets footage taken between 2019 and 2022 via Tesla vehicles' integral Autopilot system. Tesla's eight-camera system captures 360 degrees around the vehicle, and some models also feature a driver-facing device.

Rather than using the footage for work purposes, to improve the car, for example, the lawsuit says workers were able to access footage "for the tasteless and tortious entertainment of Tesla employees, and perhaps those outside the company, and the humiliation of those surreptitiously recorded."

Some examples of circulated recordings in "private and embarrassing situations and without their consent" cited in the lawsuit included a completely naked man approaching a Tesla, road-rage incidents, a child being hit by a Tesla driving at a high rate of speed and flying off his or her bike, and pictures of family pets made into memes.

The lawsuit also alleges, that despite Tesla's assurances to the contrary, the data were not truly anonymized. It was possible for anyone viewing the images to connect the footage to owners and locations.

The alleged footage sharing occurred despite the company's privacy policy assuring customers vehicles are "designed from the ground up up to protect your privacy" and "camera recordings remain anonymous," the lawsuit notes.

Tesla is not alone in featuring camera systems on its cars. In fact, backup cameras have been required in new cars in the U.S. since 2018. Whether the data gathered by backup and other car camera systems is sent to the manufacturer, stored, or sold to others varies widely, as Vox reported Thursday.

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‘Jackassery’: Sen. Sasse Calls For No Cameras Inside The Supreme Court

'Recognize the jackassery'

Joe Biden and Anderson Cooper slammed for scrapping social distancing as the cameras pull away



Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and CNN host Anderson Cooper were criticized on social media Thursday night, after viewers noticed that the two threw social distancing out the window as the cameras pulled away after carefully staying far apart during the candidate's town hall.

What are the details?

Pundit Steve Krakauer shared footage of the incident, tweeting, "Joe Biden and Anderson Cooper are making a point of social distancing during the CNN Town Hall while on the stage. But when they think they've gone to commercial break, they get so close to each other that Biden is whispering in Cooper's ear:"

Joe Biden and Anderson Cooper are making a point of social distancing during the CNN Town Hall while on the stage.… https://t.co/lqIYfFKmMW
— Steve Krakauer (@Steve Krakauer)1600391142.0

Sure enough, the clip shared by Krakauer shows that after Cooper signs off for a commercial break, the cameras pull back but continue to show Biden approaching Anderson and the host leaning over as Biden appears to whisper in his ear.

Neither of them were wearing masks, which is noteworthy since Biden has repeatedly vowed that his administration would impose a federal mask mandate as long as it is legal.

The town hall was held in a parking lot and 35 cars were allowed for the "drive-in" event.. CNN reported that it "CNN is following all of the local guidelines and restrictions put in place due to the coronavirus pandemic," according to the vice president of its special events team, "and everybody attending and working the town hall will have their temperatures taken and will answer screening questions."

The outlet noted that in Pennsylvania, where the event was held, "wearing masks when outside of the home is mandatory."

But Twitter users noticed that Biden and Cooper did not appear to be following the rules.

Several people called both men "frauds" and re-upped the common accusation that CNN is "fake news." One person tweeted, "They are so phony. It's sad that so many people are blind to it.." Another asked, "Can you catch Covid if the cameras aren't rolling?"

Fox News'' Pete Hegseth reacted to the footage, describing it as 'mask-mandate Joe whispering sweeting nothings to @andersoncooper."

Mask-mandate Joe whispering sweet nothings to @andersoncooper. Just didn’t know the cameras were still rolling... https://t.co/o9fPB1n5FH
— Pete Hegseth (@Pete Hegseth)1600390148.0

Some folks wondered exactly what the two were discussing.

Others said the moment reminded them of when CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins was caught on camera immediately removing her mask after a White House coronavirus briefing in May.

But there were those who came to Biden and Cooper's defense, with one person tweeting, "They are both tested daily. They have to be in order to do their jobs effectively."