Upon the release of the 2024 AGHS yearbook, many students were surprised to find that the majority of the yearbook was filled with AI art, along with some perceived mistakes. This caused many rumors and small controversies to circulate. Where there are rumors, some things may be less than truthful, so it’s important to get to the truth of the matter.
The yearbook creation process starts quite early in the year. First, they come up with a few themes, which they then pose to the greater student body. Once the greater student body has cast their votes, the yearbook staff get to work. They collect images, create pages, prepare backgrounds, and find backgrounds.
“It would’ve been nice if you’re going to have a background, to have it [be] Arroyo Grande, so that the kids can know that [it’s] their home,” ASB director Shannon Hurtado said.
Typically, the yearbook crew uses stock images, often found on Jostens. However, this year, the class decided to make adjustments to the traditional process. They used artificial intelligence to create images that would otherwise not exist.
“We usually go through Jostens, because Jostens provides us a lot of clip art. They provide us with a lot of backgrounds. Unfortunately, they’re not as engaging. So this is our first year working with the AI,” yearbook teacher Jefferson Clarke, said.
Using AI wasn’t without drawbacks. Many of the images, especially those involving text, are subject to many of the mistakes inherent to most AI generated images.
“The AI is not exactly, probably 100% where it needs to be. But I’m guessing in one or two years, it’s gonna be perfect,” Clarke said.
Human images have missing or extra fingers, objects are a little bit off, and a lot of text features typos: with extra letters, omitted lines, or other flaws. This isn’t anything out of the ordinary, but it’s an unfortunate side effect of using AI generated images, and a missed opportunity to feature AGHS students.
“There’s these people that are generated that aren’t Arroyo Grande High School students that some of my students were disappointed that that was an opportunity for students to be showcased, rather than AI generated people,” Hurtado said.
Alongside the weird figures, some of the clubs were not included in the yearbook, disheartening students. Other students were frustrated by the seeming omittance of certain clubs. Clubs like the GSA club and the AGHS Improv club were fully omitted from the clubs section.
“I [provide] a list of clubs and the clubs are listed on the website,” Hurtado said. “It is disappointing for students who are spending money on a project that should’ve [taken] an entire year.”
Some students were disappointed and thought there could have been better usage of space, instead of including AI generated people and images.
“It’s not as bad as I was expecting when I heard there was going to be AI, I just wished that they had put more effort into not using AI just because it’s our senior yearbook and we’re seeing pictures of kids that aren’t even real and don’t look like humans,” Fiona Swanson (’24) said.
Other clubs were more upset by some of the mistakes.
“On our mock trial page, we checked multiple times that yearbook was sent the list of correct names. And despite their confirmation and us checking when we got the yearbooks we found that there were students listed who never participated in the club, and our co-President wasn’t even listed,” Emme Landers (’25).
All things considered. despite the frustration, memories exist outside the covers of the yearbook.
