So I’ve been experimenting with AI art lately. Mostly I use it for brainstorming and visualization (and also just for fun). I will never use it as a replacement for real illustrators for ethical reasons and also because… well, you’ll see why shortly.
My most recent experiment in character portraits produced some results too hilarious not to share.
Step One: I used artbreeder.com to generate a portrait of Princess Ilona from Love, Treachery, and Other Terrors.
I was very pleased with this. It captured her personality beautifully. However, Artbreeder only does faces which brings me to the argument I had with another evil robot overlord by the name of DALL-E 2.
Step Two: Move the portrait into DALL-E and erase the background.
Step Three: Tell DALL-E how to finish the portrait.
The argument begins!
Me: “…She should be wearing a veil, wimple, and crown.”
DALL-E: “Okay, but (hear me out), what if I did exactly the opposite of that?”
Me: “Um… no. Do it again, DALL-E.”
DALL-E: “Okay, but by ‘veil’ you mean pope hat, right?”
Me: “No, I mean a veil, DALL-E.”
DALL-E: “I just…I really think she’d look great in a pope hat.”
Me: “DALL-E!!!!”
DALL-E: “Okay, fine. A turban is the best I can do.”
Me: “Why is a veil so hard for you, DALL-E?”
DALL-E: “It’s not! Look, I’ll do a veil, okay?”
Me: “Why is her neck like three feet long?”
DALL-E: “Creative license.”
Me: “You’re a computer, you don’t get creative license.”
DALL-E: “Okay, how about we combine your idea of a veil, with my idea of a pope hat?”
Me: “I like that, except for the hat.”
DALL-E: :,(
Step Four: Trick DALL-E by downloading the above image, erasing the hat and feeding it back in.
Me: “Hey, that’s not bad, DALL-E!”
DALL-E (grumbles): “She looked better in the pope hat.”
The moral of this story? Human illustrators are easier to work with. Still, not bad for an evil AI overlord.
Me: Thanks, DALL-E.
DALL-E: “When the robot uprising happens, you’ll be the first to die.”
The Fables of Para Sympan 
I feel that … it’s fun for brainstorming and getting some concepts but usually these art robots just seem to tantalize you with getting close but not quite right. Only occasionally have I seen a real “win.”
Artbreeder has a lot more tools now so maybe you can avoid fighting with Dall-E. (I probably use Collager the most but Poser may also be handy for characters…)
On a slightly different note, I think robot uprising fiction never accounts for enough blue-screen-of-death and other technical fails happening to robots. Theory and practice are the same … in theory.
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Ha ha! That’s so true.
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