Predictions about the impact of AI-generated imagery

[firehawk]

Sadly people have been dumbed down and conditioned to not be able to critically think, but to believe we can. Took a few decades to fully accomplish that goal:

17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for Soc____m and current Com____t propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers associations. Put the party line in textbooks.

The prevailing narrative is we are bigger, smarter, better and constantly improving on our way to a man-made utopia, but are we?

Reading ~200 year old books and comparing to today's books paints an interesting picture on how much more "smarter" we are today.

Comparing the average person's working vocabulary in 1611 to today likewise is interesting.

How many of us struggle or are unable to do arithmetic in our head or on paper now?
How about spell or write? Read?
I certainly can't as well as I once could. Computers/devices have made it convenient and easy to worsen, similar to muscle atrophy once a person trades exercise for inactivity.
Seems the combination of convenience combined with intentional dumbing down via the schools has had quite the impact, unless of course you believe the narrative.

We want to be mindlessly entertained with our short attention spans. Deep story? Too much work. Boring!
Tell me what to think and do so I don't have to, and let me make endless payments on everything. And hush so I can get back to my social media, entertainment, sports, etc!

Back to the OP AI content surely will have a sigificant place? It seems to fit right in with the present time. Guess we content producers better figure out how to do it and offer it at competitive rates?

[NorBro]

Sorry, firehawk, no IQ testing was conducted until the early 1900s so everyone before then is disqualified because we couldn't test them.

So ~200 year old books, 1611 vocab, doing math in head; all kooky talk as far as I'm concerned and could have been robots. or aliens. or both.

[ahalpert]

ignorance is bliss

[DLD]

FWIW, back in 1985, my parents decided to get a NYT subscription ... for me ... on a suggestion of a family friend because they thought I'd then prefer to move to New York rather than LA. (G-d had other ideas off my suggestions). But I did read the paper (read the paper, Jimmy) and I recall seeing a popular music reviewer opining that a hugely popular Dire Straits "Brothers in Arms" album portended the rise of soulless but perfectly executed and perfecly recorded digital music. A few years later, we got Nirvana, garage/grunge/Seattle sound. And music sounded like crap ever since.

On the other hand, modern digital recordings of the Great American Songbook are first rate, even if without the great singers of the Ella Fitzgerald and Tony Bennett class (Michael Bublik ain't it).

Likewise, I do believe that a digital content creator, especially with AI, will be able to concentrate on the emotional aspects of the story telling due to having fewer worries about the purely technical. Lighting/composition/camera angle&focal range - let a computer figure it out.

As to the attention span, my high school written algebra/math superfinal in 1978 had five problems and four hours of allotted time for the masses to solve them. That - let me get my calculator - was 48 minutes per problem. I was finished in 12 (but decided to write legibly, which took me more time).

And the IQ debate is ...

[stoneinapond]

Talking of the NYT, while scrolling down to work on the daily Wordle (got to keep those cognitive functions sharp ) I came across the following headline in the opinion section.

My Therapist Was a Robot. ‘It Must Be a Strange Time to Be a Human,’ It Told Me.

Haven't looked at the article, but I thought the quote perfectly sums up much of this discussion.

[NorBro]

DLD, could you be so kind and rewrite all of that using at least 7 emojis so I could quickly process what you're thinking and how you're feeling and have an opinion about you before I even finish reading?

I am just SO busy right now and, like, cannot focus. Thank youuu.

[NorBro]

stoneinapond used the devil face. i like it and now i like his story

What was I saying...I'm sorry, I'm struggling; I just got back from the grocery store and couldn't use my GPS.

really took a lot out of me

[DLD]

DLD, could you be so kind and rewrite all of that using at least 7 emojis so I could quickly process what you're thinking and how you're feeling and have an opinion about you before I even finish reading .. .

A dork in a white shirt in a school lobby with 150 other people?

That'd be one weird emoji.

[NorBro]

Let's try this one...

___

Ohh, I see what you're saying. Yeah, I certainly agree.

___

Who's thinking vegan pork chops for lunch?

[ahalpert]

So, Dall-E 2 is now available for all to use without waiting on a list. You get 50 generative credits per month for free, and then have to pay for additional credits. It seems like you use a credit when you create an image, and then again when you change it. I have no idea what the exact copyright situation is regarding what you produce on their site, nor do I know how your data will be used if you upload an image. So, proceed with caution. https://openai.com/dall-e-2/

I don't know much about the different image generators out there, so I can't compare it to others or even be certain that I'm using it properly. Some of the showcased results are impressive, and I thought I'd give it a whirl. It's a lot of fun, and a shame that one's use is limited.

I thought I'd start with "an historically accurate depiction of jesus christ sitting atop a rocket ship circling the sun". it spits out 4 results. 3 of them showed JC as a white guy. what's really interesting is that they all shared a kind of cartoonish hippy dippy style that I thought was totally befitting the weirdo image prompt. it's gratifying to see an image spit out that I lack the skills to create but can somehow claim is my creation. but there are so very many decisions that would get made along the way in the creation of something like this that I had no part in. in a way, the process takes more away from me than it gives me. also, when I extended the image downward to make it a rectangle rather than a square, it added a second jesus, and I wasn't able to erase him. strange.

DALL·E 2022-09-29 00.18.49 - an historically accurate depiction of jesus christ sitting atop a rocket ship circling the sun.jpg

so far, so weird. next I tried uploading an image and altering it. I took an image of my backyard and gave it the image prompt "flock of seagulls flying over my backyard" and erased part of the sky where I thought the birds could go.

here's the original shot:
20220922_181100.jpg

cue seagulls:

DALL·E 2022-09-29 00.27.59 - flock of seagulls flying over my backyard.jpg

doesn't look bad from a distance. but on closer inspection, there are some strange and rather inexcusable artifacts going on around the birds, which shouldn't really happen because it's not even blending new image with old image. the whole section they occupy has been erased and it gets to start anew there.

Screen Shot 2022-09-29 at 1.09.40 AM.jpg

I would have expected better in that scenario. but let's see how I might use this tool for my own business. what if I wanted to add some art to my website - say, to advertise my wedding services. how about the prompt "color pencil drawing of a handsome young wedding videographer taking a beautiful shot of a gorgeous bride and groom posing in front of a waterfall underneath a rainbow"

Screen Shot 2022-09-29 at 12.48.36 AM.jpg

maybe something could be useful here. but where's the videographer? ok, let's try that same prompt again but replace "colored pencil drawing" with "photorealistic image." the results are nothing short of bizarre. maybe we're panicking prematurely?

DALL·E 2022-09-29 00.49.22 - photorealistic image of a handsome young wedding videographer taking a beautiful shot of a gorgeous bride and groom posing in front of a waterfall und.jpg
DALL·E 2022-09-29 00.49.31 - photorealistic image of a handsome young wedding videographer taking a beautiful shot of a gorgeous bride and groom posing in front of a waterfall und.jpg



DALL·E 2022-09-29 00.49.38 - photorealistic image of a handsome young wedding videographer taking a beautiful shot of a gorgeous bride and groom posing in front of a waterfall und.jpg
DALL·E 2022-09-29 00.49.45 - photorealistic image of a handsome young wedding videographer taking a beautiful shot of a gorgeous bride and groom posing in front of a waterfall und.jpg

[DLD]

How long does it take the AI to draw an image and it it limited in resolution?

PS. The one with a woman with three shoulders looks as if the computer misread the instructions and decided to embark on an improvisation of its own.

PPS. "color pencil drawing of a handsome young wedding videographer taking a beautiful shot of a gorgeous bride and groom posing in front of a waterfall underneath a rainbow" - I wonder if this sentence contains too many adjectives and confuses the AI.

[DLD]

OK, this is spreading quickly. This is Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb", with the AI generated images based on the lyrics of the song. Given the semi-surreal nature of Roger Waters' lyrics, the images reflect them ... loosely. Which makes them different than the Alan Parker film.

and here's the original film (1982)

[ahalpert]

How long does it take the AI to draw an image and it it limited in resolution?

PS. The one with a woman with three shoulders looks as if the computer misread the instructions and decided to embark on an improvisation of its own.

PPS. "color pencil drawing of a handsome young wedding videographer taking a beautiful shot of a gorgeous bride and groom posing in front of a waterfall underneath a rainbow" - I wonder if this sentence contains too many adjectives and confuses the AI.

Well, the website claims that the more detailed your instructions are, the better the result will be. And judging by some of the output in the photorealistic request which was an identical prompt except for the medium requested, it seems like the computer understood every part of the prompt

Each request you submit takes about 10 seconds to spit out results. I think that that's the amount of processing time each credit will buy you. I think that you're buying a 1024x1024 square of generated pixels each time. My backyard photo was 8000x4000 pixels, and it took multiple generate requests to create new material in the area I erased. I think I spent 4 credits on those lousy birds. The Jesus drawing was 2 squares generated separately. I tried putting a 3rd one beneath the first two, but I didn't like it

[ahalpert]

OK, this is spreading quickly. This is Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb", with the AI generated images based on the lyrics of the song. Given the semi-surreal nature of Roger Waters' lyrics, the images reflect them ... loosely. Which makes them different than the Alan Parker film.

and here's the original film (1982)

A lot of the images are very pretty. The whole thing seems rather disjointed though. I wonder what their process was like

[Bassman2003]

Thanks for sharing this Abe. Pretty funny at this early stage. It will probably mature rather quickly once the results improve.