I recently watched an episode about text-prompted AI images on a favorite YouTube channel, and a huge rabbit hole opened.
I Watched This And My Mind Was Blown 🤯
I realize most of my readers live in SE Asia or are SE Asian, so you may not be familiar with this show. It's a satirical weekly news show that pokes fun at current events and controversial topics, highlighting one specific issue each week. After watching this AI images episode, I was most fascinated with and disturbed by the text-prompted AI images in particular.
It is amazing how fast technology is progressing, and it feels impossible to know where AI will take us, but it's sure to change things forever. When the host specifically named the program Hotpot, I made a mental note to look for it with a Google search. I wanted to test this technology myself if I could find a free way to do it.
Hotpot.ai 🤖🎨
Dall-E 2 is likely the program that provided the super realistic images in the above video, but it's not free and it also seems to be in development. I did find free access to two programs, the 1st generation of Dall-E via a site called Craiyon, and limited access to Hotpot. Hotpot produces more realistic and higher quality images, but the free version is limited to 256px and one image at a time.
I navigated my way to the Art Maker tab on the AI Graphics dropdown menu, and there I found the text-prompted image generator. There is a Style tab that allows you to choose options like Photorealistic or Pencil Sketch. It's safe to say I spent far too long typing in the most ridiculous things I could think of, but for this example I used the same text as I did in my thumbnail with a different program, both with photorealistic parameters.
Down The Rabbit Hole 🕳️🐇
White guy posting about AI images, where's the Southeast Asian connection required for ASEAN Hive content? Hey, I live in Cambodia and the following images have a Southeast Asian theme, so this is relevant 😁.
"Thai couple sharing a banana at night"
You can easily see after one query how ridiculous and fun this can get, and the images are quite disturbing most of the time. It's as if I am watching the AI learn in real-time while being force-fed hallucinogens, and it just doesn't get boring. Type in what you want to create at the top, change a few settings if you like, and wait a couple minutes while an image is produced.
"It is the best website since The Oracle of Bacon."
- Justin Parke
"King Kong delivering a pizza in Indonesia"
It's hit and miss, this image didn't even display a King Kong anywhere, but it's impressive how the AI tries to produce what you ask for. I wonder what the person this image is is based on was carrying above their head? There is great joy in simply typing up something ridiculous and seeing what the results will be, and the 2+ minute wait makes me nostalgic for 1990s slow internet.
Craiyon 🖍️
When it comes to playing around and having fun, Craiyon is the site you want to use. At times Hotpot takes an hour or more to create a single 256px image, but Craiyon creates multiple images quickly, albeit with a sacrifice in quality compared to Hotpot. Based on what I saw on some dedicated Reddit forums, it seems Craiyon's text input is much more reactive, and there are users who have figured out how to talk to this AI more effectively, using keywords like "rich colors," "award-winning," etc.
This site is super simple, just type and click, then wait for your images. The results are often bizarre, and it's clear the AI's biggest hurdle is the human face. Walrus, go-kart, and orange juice all together in a green room is no problem, well, the go-kart seemed a bit much for the algorithms.
The results are incredibly entertaining, but not as fun as the wait. Apparently the second generation of this AI software is going to blow away this stuff. I've seen the demos, and it is very impressive, but I don't expect the 2nd generation programs or tech to be free anytime soon.
As you can see, the possibilities are endless, human faces are disturbing, and it takes some practice to start understanding what the AI can do. One thing is for sure, many of these images are better than most NFTs I've seen, no offense to serious NFT collectors.
Andy Warhol kitten pop-art is this easy, we are living in the future folks.
Okay, I better stop and get some sleep, this is far too entertaining. Please visit this site and type in some ridiculous nonsense, generate some images, and share a result or two in the comments. Without a doubt this will be some kind of ASEAN Hive Challenge soon. Until next time Hivers....
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