I Love AI

 AI is coming on by leaps and bounds and I've been standing on the sidelines marvelling.

Now I've joined in. Making pictures. 

 Is this the death of art? Well, they said photography would kill off art back in the 1840s- and look how that worked out. AI is a tool. It's not going away. Might as well get the hang of it

I'm using Hotpot. They give you 20 prompts a day. For free.

 One learns. 

 One learns what works and what doesn't

 One learns that AI is a bit wayward. It has a mind of its own. Only it doesn't. But it can and does interpret prompts in surprising ways. You need to be precise, and even then it can throw you a loop. This is not a bad thing. Sometimes its "ideas' improve on yours. 

 Anyway, here are some of the images I've produced thus far...

1. The prompt was "Sumerian Goddess with snakes". And I got pretty much what I'd hoped for.



2. I kept trying to put Napoleon Bonaparte in unlikely situations and the algorithm kept thwarting me. This time I wanted him on a beach with UFOs. We have a beach, we have a UFO, but the only hint of Boney is the presence of some vaguely 19th ships. All the same I like what I got.



3. "Pilgrim with staff walking through Spain." Absolutely. Just what I ordered. 



4. "Grey aliens dancing round a maypole." Yes! And what a fabulous maypole.



5." African woman in cornfield with UFOs" Another hit!



6. I asked for Napoleon in a boat with cats. I didn't ask for Napoleon to be turned into a cat. Still, I like it.  I'm not sure why St Paul's Cathedral shows up in the background when I didn't request it...

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7. I had several goes at this one. I discovered that if you ask for a witch they always put her in a silly hat. So I substituted "old woman" for
 "witch". Turned out nicely in the end. 



8. "Monk walking in cloister". I wanted him facing the other way, but, oh, never mind. He doesn't seem to have made up his mind whether he's a Christian monk or a Buddhist one- and why should he?

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9. Finally a very charming snow scene. I'd requested Napoleon but got some of his soldiers instead. And there's St Paul's again....

I'm Still Loving AI

 I'm continuing to experiment, only now I've taken out a subscription and every image costs me...

But I get a lot more pixels...

And these are "Premium" images....

1, A traveller passes through a portal into another dimension. Very pleased with this.



2. The ghost of Charles I riding down Whitehall. I wanted him to have his head placed somewhere other than on his neck but the algorithm eschews extreme violence. Your characters can fight and tote weapons but they can't kill. Looking at other people's "art" I note that swastikas are pretty much verboten too. You want to be racist, sexist, hateful? The algorithm will do its best to deflect you. Someone else's prompt that called for Donald Trump to be shown eating a baby generated an image of Trump tucking into something more like a flan. 



3. The first time I asked for a "time machine" the algorithm assumed I simply wanted an image of another time and gave me pyramids and statues of Pharaoh with nothing technological in sight. All rather pedestrian. The second time I got a curvy Egyptian lady crouched on a box. Was the box her time machine? Anyway, it wasn't what I wanted. Third time lucky? Yes. I phrased my prompt so I would definitely get a machine- and here it is. "Alien planet with Time Machine". Good, eh?



4.The next image is a variation on the "Sumerian Goddess with Snakes" only this time I asked that she be African

Crone Goddess With Apple

 Just one more...

I've had multiple goes at this. 

The final prompt was  "Crone Goddess with Apple; Glastonbury Tor in background. High Summer"

That ain't exactly Glastonbury Tor but the vibe is right. It feels like Somerset

And the pointy tower that's suggestive of a space rocket is really rather cool.