This article of The State of The Gate With Brian Cohen 2025 was published at 8:33 in the evening Eastern Daylight Time today, Monday, August 18, 2025 — which is exactly 19 years to the minute when The Gate unofficially launched with this article pertaining to liquids and gels — and what is allowed to be carried aboard an airplane and what is not allowed on Friday, August 18, 2006.
Thank You For 19 Years: The State of The Gate With Brian Cohen 2025
Artificial intelligence has rapidly leapfrogged in terms of advancement and continuing improvements in technology since this time last year. The time when people will be absolutely unable to tell the difference between an image that was produced by artificial intelligence and a real photograph is rapidly approaching — and some examples have already crossed that threshold…
…but is that something to celebrate?
Some colleagues of mine have increasingly been using images created by artificial intelligence in their articles. The cutesy cartoony images can be okay; but images and “photographs” that are created by artificial intelligence are often fraught with unnatural elements and misspellings. I am not sure these images actually add anything of substance or value to their articles — but that is their choice.
At least two issues have arisen: one is that artificial intelligence does not simply conjure images out of thin air. It sources bits and pieces of the work of existing photographs and images — some of them copyrighted — and as a photographer, I find that to be a problem. That is no different than a human being compositing an image from numerous various original sources whose creators spent time, effort, and money to create the original images in the first place. That is a form of plagiarism, in my opinion. I do not like the idea that someone can take portions of my work and pass it off as their own without giving me credit or compensating me.
The other issue is trust: what is to stop someone on reporting on something that is not true and passing off an image that was created by artificial intelligence that looks like a bonafide photograph as “proof” of the misinformation?
Regardless of the size and demographics of my audience, I like to consider myself as a trusted authoritative source upon whom you can rely. That means providing your with information from original sources as often as possible — not from some third party. That also means using real photographs to bolster what I write.
I have committed my fair share of mistakes over the past 19 years — but at least you know that I am human.
I do believe that the use of artificial intelligence can be a beneficial and powerful tool in both writing and the creation of images if used properly — which is why I promise that if I ever use artificial intelligence in any of my work, it will be clearly disclaimed as such in full discloser.
Updating Articles and Publishing Them Again
Speaking of full disclosure, you might have noticed that I have been republishing existing articles. This is a practice I have always avoided, as I have never reused an article once…
…but after having written greater than 11,000 articles in 19 years, remembering every single topic that I authored — as well as when I wrote it — became virtually impossible. Some articles from the past reminded me of things about which I had forgotten and were relevant today.
I cannot fathom that any publication or social media — print, virtual, or even video — has the exact same audience for 19 years. New readers and subscribers always come along. They have no idea about the articles which I have written in the past. When I see a weblog or a social media account which has published something that interested me, I rarely seek past works — and even then, I do not have the time or inclination to go through thousands of works over the years…
…so why should I expect you to do the same?
The reasons why I add a disclaimer at the top of each article that I publish again are not only to preserve the original date that the article was published for the record; but also to let you and other readers know that the articles had been published before. I personally am not exactly fond of reading an article that is deliberately passed off as new but was written years ago. The comments section of an article is typically a dead giveaway: an article that was published as new for the first time on August 18, 2025 would not have comments dating back to January 24, 2019.
I also realize that when other travel writers impart their experiences, they are not immediate. They could be from several years ago; and the pertinent information gets updated — such as admission fees or hours when a point of interest is open. Once the pertinent information is updated, the article is as good as new — probably similar to when Delta Air Lines refurbishes an old airplane and it appears new to passengers. The employees at the Technical Operations Center of Delta Air Lines are some of the best mechanics in commercial aviation. I do not care if I am aboard an airplane that may be 20 years old when flying Delta Air Lines because I trust the airline and its world-class mechanics.
Two additional benefits of republishing articles — as long as they are properly updated — instead of writing new articles is that not only do I have more time to write longer articles, do more research, and enjoy my travels more; but I also get to better organize and condense 19 years of articles into several years, and they become easier to find. Articles with topics that are hopelessly outdated and cannot be resurrected are left to naturally fade away into oblivion or retired under the classification of Private instead of Published.
Meanwhile, the focus of The Gate With Brian Cohen has been slowly returning to my thoughts and experiences in travel in the form of both new articles and of republished articles. You might have noticed that articles pertaining to deals have become less frequent as a result.
I have an extensive library of information at The Gate With Brian Cohen. Why not continue to use it in addition to writing new information?
Additional Frustrations
Many weblogs and other entities in the media — including The Gate With Brian Cohen — continue to be substantially adversely affected by the changes in algorithms over the past year by Google, which ultimately determines how content is searched and found. Although the situation has slowly been improving, recovery is still a long way off. Additional information pertaining to this issue is explained in this article from last year.
I cannot stand search engine optimization. The process consistently causes me to write differently than I would prefer; and it consumes more of my time than I would like. I would rather just write about what interests me and what is on my mind. I loathe the very thought of trying to please the algorithms at Google…
…but even more frustrating is the proliferation of what is known as click bait. Sensationalism has run rampant throughout the media. Many articles lend credibility to content that otherwise does not deserve mention — and has happened throughout history, that sensationalism overshadows information that may be of importance to you. I discuss this phenomenon in further detail in this article from last year.
I also have not updated the list of the top 100 articles in terms of readership since Friday, August 1, 2014 — which is when The Gate returned to BoardingArea — in 2024 or 2025 because the service which I have used for years has now decided to charge for what they offer. That is not necessarily a bad thing — everyone has a right to earn money — but I have decided that the service was not worth the expense for my purposes at this time…
…and I have not used Google Analytics as long as I have used the other service; so the results will be different.
The Present — and The Future
The primary goal of the present and future is simply to continue traveling to new places — especially countries to which I have never been. I have at least two trips planned for South America and Asia before the end of this year. I traveled to at least 14 countries last year and several more this year.
I recently purchased a new Canon EOS 7R mirrorless camera, as the shutter of my trusty Canon EOS 70D model finally died after being with me in many countries on six continents for almost 12 years. Perhaps that shutter did me a favor, as I purchased the new camera just before prices of cameras and other imported products increased — likely due to the current tariff situation. Mirrorless technology has not only caught up with the technology for digital single lens reflex cameras — it seems to be surpassing it, as evidenced by Canon not releasing a successor to its EOS 90D model since it was introduced almost six years ago on Wednesday, August 28, 2019. I like the new camera overall — although it has a few things that I do not like.
Reminders as to what remains with The Gate With Brian Cohen for the present and for the future are addressed in detail from both this article in 2024 and— this article from 2022.
Final Boarding Call
You can read more information about the history of The Gate With Brian Cohen in this article and in this article.
Once again, I am asking a simple favor: increasing readership and interest in The Gate With Brian Cohen is something which I have always been interested in doing in order to allow me to travel even more and bring you articles of trip reports, reviews, and experiences from around the world. Although subscribing to the free newsletter is one way you can help, I also want to grow readership organically based on the quality of the content of the articles I write. Please spread the word. My intent is to mine the backlog of unpublished photographs of my travels over the years and write new articles for The Gate With Brian Cohen.
As I say every year: thank you so much once again for your support. Mere words cannot ever convey my expression of gratitude, as I am grateful to you — more than you will ever know — for without you, there would be no The Gate With Brian Cohen. I truly mean that. Thank you.
May the remainder of the year 2025 only get better for you from here on in…
…but in the meantime, let us conclude this article with a link to a song with an appropriate title by Steely Dan.
The photograph featured at the top of this article is the city of Bogotá in Colombia as seen from a mountain called Monserrate. All photographs ©2014, ©2018, ©2019, ©2024, and ©2025 by Brian Cohen.
