Antonio Antoine also has something to say about generative AI in cartography. As I did in my piece about generative AI, he takes as his starting point the question of gatekeeping; unlike me, he’s coming at it as a working mapmaker. He takes the question at face value: who and where are the gatekeepers in cartography—for example, access to data, education, software licences—and asks what (if anything) generative AI can do about it. In the end he comes down on the side of accountability: “If one is not trained in geography/cartography, where does accountability step in to correct bad maps? Are formal cartographers supposed to police the internet? Like gatekeepers? Why not nip it in the bud at the source? […] As far as I am concerned, genAI in cartography is a race to the bottom. There will be little to no accountability in these maps as there is very little ownership in them.”
Tech analyst Ben Thompson dismisses the 'clearly absurd' concept embedded in AI watermarking