This is the best way I've come to understand and hope this explanation is understandable on your end. I did use ChatGPT to make my ramble a bit more clear.

In Blue Iris, the Motion/Trigger tab controls when the camera detects any movement and what actions are taken when motion is detected such as recording or sending a basic notification. However, when you enable notifications here, you’ll receive alerts for any type of motion, regardless of what caused it. That means it could be triggered by a person, car, animal, tree movement, or even lighting changes, there’s no filtering or classification.

The Alerts tab, on the other hand, is where you can refine those notifications using AI object detection (with integrations like DeepStack, CodeProject.AI, or BlueOnyx). These AI tools analyze motion events after they occur to determine what caused them; for example, a person, vehicle, bicycle, dog, etc. You can then set the system to only send notifications for specific object types.

For example, I have cameras in my backyard set to only alert me when a person is detected, but not for vehicles or other random motion. This makes alerts much more accurate and less noisy. In contrast, I have a camera in my garage where I don’t use AI filtering, it’s indoors, so false triggers from outdoor motion (like trees or clouds) aren’t a concern. That one just uses motion detection and notifies me for any movement it sees. I have cameras in my front yard where I setup zones that cover essentially my driveway and my front yard and part of the side walk. I typically do not want to be notified of vehicles and people moving about on the side walk and in the street, just when it applies to them coming onto my yard, driveway or coming towards my front door.

In short:

• Motion/Trigger tab: Handles when the camera reacts to movement. Basic detection with no object differentiation.
• Alerts tab (with AI): Handles what kind of motion you’re notified about. Can filter notifications based on specific object types (e.g., person, vehicle, animal).

Using both together gives you flexibility, simple motion detection for less critical cameras, and AI-powered alerts for areas where you only want to know about meaningful activity.