‘We have to be alert to AI-generated images – is this too good to be true?’ – our head of photography answered your questions

Fiona Shields is the Guardian’s global head of photography, overseeing all the images across our websites and print publications. She answered your questions about guarding against AI, advice for young photographers and more

ndl4321 asks: Are we slowly seeing the end of use of black and white photography?

So little of what is seen these days seems to have been composed specifically for monochrome as opposed to being taken in colour and then effects added afterwards.

I think the biggest leap away from black and white photography came when newspapers started printing in colour. This was definitely seen as a way of bringing the pages to life. Since then, it’s true, colour photography is much more usual but I think there is still a place for black and white images to give a particular sense of atmosphere, a timeless quality and often the absence of colour can help the viewer make sense of a complicated scene.

I think the continued publication of him stepping out of cars, striding along with his briefcase has added to the context of the story - that this is a person with a high profile in public life. We have also published the artist’s impressions of him in court, but it seems we have no police “mugshot” of him on file which is the type of picture usually published when a guilty verdict is handed down so perhaps none was provided to the media.