For those asking for an example of using AI to do detective work by finding the exact location of a photo, here you go. I’ll use this picture and give it to o3 with the following prompt.
“Do some detective work and figure out exactly where this is.”
Here’s the response from o3. I haven’t check that it’s right, but all my other inquiries have been.
Short answer:
The photograph was taken just offshore of the Nā Pali Coast on the island of Kauaʻi, Hawai‘i — specifically in the open water a few hundred metres in front of the Kalalau / Honopū section of the coast (22.15 °N, -159.63 °W), looking back toward the cliffs.
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How you can tell
Visual clue What it matches
Fluted, green volcanic ridges with deep vertical grooves The characteristic “cathedral”‐style pali (sea cliffs) of the Nā Pali Coast — nowhere else in Hawai‘i has that many parallel erosion gullies running straight down the face.
No development, road, or buildings at sea level The 16-mile Nā Pali shoreline is roadless wilderness; every other high-cliff stretch in the main Hawaiian Islands (like West Maui or Moloka‘i’s Kalaupapa) has at least a small settlement, lighthouse, or visible trail cut.
Low fringe of hala & ironwood trees right at the waterline Kalalau and Honopū valleys have the only pocket beaches on the coast, each edged by those species. From the water they appear as the thin, bright-green belt you see here.
Rainbow angle & lighting Early-morning sun over the open Pacific (behind the photographer) is exactly when paddlers and tour boats rounding Kalalau often get that textbook rainbow arc over the valley mouth.
Surf shot context Surf / paddle images showing a shaka just above a rising swell with these cliffs in the background are a bit of a rite-of-passage among Kauaʻi water-photographers — it’s a familiar framing from zodiac, kayak and SUP tours that moor off Kalalau Beach.
Put all that together and the only coastline that checks every box is Nā Pali. The shape of the headland and the tree-fringed flat behind it line up best with the Kalalau–Honopū stretch, so that pinpoints the spot within a few hundred metres.
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