A fascinating, subtler point here: AI-colorization is probably coloring historical images using a Western and/or modernist lens. Think of the vibrancy of Islamic architecture in the former Ottoman Empire and what this makes dull.
Colorization APIs are becoming widespread; AI-colorized historical photos are circulated without caveat. But is AI colorization providing an accurate image of the past? To find out, I digitally desaturated these color photos by Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky, taken between 1909 and 1915.