AI Image Generation

[RGC]

Anyone experimented with DALL-E 2 or similar tech yet? Interested to know what the limitations are (beyond the deliberate censorship on adult content). IIUC, you get 50 searches included when you sign up. Might have a play later.

https://openai.com/dall-e-2/

Edit: It appears celebrity faces are blocked (or melted!); should have guessed that really.

"young jack nicholson pops a wheelie on his scrambler while riding across sand dunes at sunset photorealistic"

[BryanM]

The progress on this stuff has been crazy, DALL-E is like banging two rocks together by today's standards. As Robert Miles says, we're at the part of the exponential curve that actually feels exponential.

At the beginning of this year, I spent like ~10 hours picking out about a thousand "good" portraits from WaifuLabs, with the intention to use them in a simple procedural gacha dungeon crawler maybe some day... as soon as I can figure out how to make browser programs without having to use Javascript. (Emscripten or WebAssembly in general looks like it might be the tool for the job. I don't know why it has to be such a huge f'n pain, and we can't just use something like C or Basic or even Java, like a normal human being...) They were perfectly good portraits, higher quality than the kind they'd use in old computer RPGs like Dungeon Master, Eye of the Beholder, and some old Wizardry games.

And they're absolute dogshit compared to what current models can do.

Tons of people have started using the stuff for covers of their content, their webnovels, their music albums, etc. It's to the point that you'd stand out better not using it, and drawing your own shitty art in MS Paint or something. Argh, some people include an image with every chapter.

Back at the tippity start of this new era, I tried it on one of my own covers through Diffuse the Rest.



They certainly seem more artistic. Could never get the thing to render the ducklings following behind him. Getting the meat on the fork was a no-go, though it delights me with the one that has the piece of brain stuck to a piece of busted lumber. The tree on the horizon being transformed into that imposing jumble of roots and vines is kind of cool...

[Mischief Maker]

Unfortunately AI can be racist as fuck.

[BIL]

Edit: It appears celebrity faces are blocked (or melted!)

Jesus fuck, was about to say Good to see you post again bud

[RGC]

The progress on this stuff has been crazy, DALL-E is like banging two rocks together by today's standards. As Robert Miles says, we're at the part of the exponential curve that actually feels exponential.

Yeah, it's fair to say I'm way behind the curve with this tech, hence a bit easily impressed. Initially my mind was blown by the possibilities, but after spending a while dicking about trying to create a shmup themed image with DALL-E 2, I couldn't get close to the result I was hoping for. Still, I had fun seeing what it was capable of. We're not quite at the point where we can say these tools are only limited by the accuracy of the user's instructions, but it feels like we're not that far off.

They certainly seem more artistic. Could never get the thing to render the ducklings following behind him. Getting the meat on the fork was a no-go, though it delights me with the one that has the piece of brain stuck to a piece of busted lumber. The tree on the horizon being transformed into that imposing jumble of roots and vines is kind of cool...

Yeah, I'm liking the result.

Some other examples from DALL-E 2:




based on: "Gothic painting of a demon with six heads devouring a man" Quite effective, but why does it so often mangle faces?

One for BIL:



"Photo of jesus punching an alien in a bar"

I kept these deliberately loose to see what the engine would come up with. Interesting that it opted for "ripped humanoid alien easily counters Saviour's attack without spilling a drop"

Edit: Definitely haven't exhausted my interest yet. I plan to feed it some 70s movie posters and see what it does with those.

[MJR]

Ai image generation is a great toy for lulz, I've also played with it just like everyone else. Using it for fun is all right and fine.

But anyone who thinks they have a right to brand themselves as a career "AI artist" and go submitting their Midjourney-created portfolios to artstation or similar portfolio sites, and try to snatch jobs from people who actually put up the hours to make the original art (that AI harvests and regurgitates) should be ashamed of themselves.

Fortunately, the recent mass protest at artstation and the recent decision by US copyright office that AI-generated content has no right to claim copyright is a sign that you can't push real people off their jobs just like that.

[BIL]

One for BIL:

Cheers bud! I wonder if it's a friendly misunderstanding, with ol' Jebus merely trying to cure our out-of-town friend of his pissedness for the long flight home, via his Hokuto Shinken? It's easily mistaken for his rather less salubrious (though every bit as beatific!) COMPASSIONATE FACE-BREAKING FIST

I'll stick to the NKJV iteration, for now

[Lander]

Stuart Ashen does some fun stuff with AI image gen. One of his recent streams' quiz feature centered around trying to figure out what famous movie scene the AI was trying to reproduce, with classics like RoboCop and Star Wars getting the manglement treatment.
And if you want some real horror, try watching an AI-upscaled 240p TV broadcast of a concert or music chart show - all the panning around and zooming makes for some seriously ghoulish background faces

as soon as I can figure out how to make browser programs without having to use Javascript. (Emscripten or WebAssembly in general looks like it might be the tool for the job. I don't know why it has to be such a huge f'n pain, and we can't just use something like C or Basic or even Java, like a normal human being...)

Emscripten is the way if you want to use C/C++, though for systems langs I'd go with Rust since (among a thousand other sanity-saving reasons) you can download a working wasm toolchain from the CLI and compile it straight to webshit. Pay no mind to the hundred hour learning curve behind the curtain

[BryanM]

One immediate use of this stuff is colorizing all that black and white manga art.

Also... making your own AVGN episodes.

[orange808]

Fortunately, the recent mass protest at artstation and the recent decision by US copyright office that AI-generated content has no right to claim copyright is a sign that you can't push real people off their jobs just like that.

You can't enforce that and it will only keep the most lowly of plebs out. The first thing almost anyone can do is train their own work into their own customized model. Then, you're going to process it further amd expand out your idea. Artists that use AI in their workflow can (simply) lie. Problem solved. There's nothing you can possibly do to lock them out of copyright protection.

It will keep plebs out, but how many people are making a living selling "one off" single works? I imagine you can use AI to animate a character design to some degree, but it looks more labor intensive to me than just drawing the damn thing.

[orange808]

One immediate use of this stuff is colorizing all that black and white manga art.

Also... making your own AVGN episodes.

Wow. That's almost evil. Thanks for the share.

I assume that voice work is being performed in colab. I haven't spent any time with voice models. I assume that wouldn't run on a RTX card.

Anyhow, should downscale the frames, add lip sync, use an upscaling model, and (finally) downscale everything to the target video size to soften the edges. Although, that might trigger something in Google's terms of service and get him punted.

[BryanM]

It's still a long ways away from the machine just making watchable tv shows, but it does feel like the day will indeed come when we can all have the kind of software Arf uses to make his videos with. It would be cool to get to see some new episodes of The Simpsons...

And today I learned that Theodore Kaczynski is still alive. Huh.

[orange808]

Here's the trouble with subjective rules on copyright and the creative process.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LgnfkoLhQmw

If you're a fan of music with the slightest amount of curiosity and experience, you hear exactly what I hear--and it's well done. It's copyrighted. It's original. Then again, it really isn't.

[BryanM]

An overview of what's happened in the last four months. Things... they really do change, eh.

One of the fads has been to make slideshows of concept art combined with some suitable mood music. Like this or that. It's really cool the first couple times, and the novelty wears off very quickly after that.

A goofy example of "just have the computer make everything" is here in this short film. (It's objectively on the same level of quality as Warcraft 3's graphics and writing!) Eventually an all-in-one software suite will be commercialized, and when it's actually good will probably be the next killer app. It takes poor Lord Bung years just to make one lousy 20 minute long episode. Imagine anyone being able to knock one out in a day or two.

Oh, and Corridor Crew made one with a little more effort put into it.

The obvious superhuman potential is there - human beings can't make an animated film where every single frame is painted as detailed as possible. That level of art has been bound to static images and Live 2d "animations". The bulk of it uses extremely simplified light and faces.

.....

Everyone's making a big deal about artists becoming homeless, but no one ever worries about the ladies on Only Fans. The flesh is weak and exposed to that cruel mistress called time*, while the machine never sleeps and only gets hornier with time.

* at least until they work out the Dick Cheney Immortality Serum)

There's nothing you can possibly do to lock them out of copyright protection.

Yeah, the content pipeline is going to be absolutely saturated to the point that monetizing it would be a bitch. Patreons and free content all around; It'd be webnovels all the way down man - the only content authors would be creating is scripts, essentially. Democratizing our entertainment is a good thing, trust me.

If anything could stop it, I think it'd be the cartels. It'd cut into their business so f'n hard. We don't really need their shite. I expect more clamp downs on the internet, we've had it too good for too long. Too communist - it's a culture they can't possibly allow to go on if they want to maintain their respective empires.

Anyway... back when I was 13 I knew it was physically possible to create TV shows and the like computationally. I even got a blog post on it published by one of Stileproject's sister sites. (They were really desperate for interesting content, and this was a year or two before they became 100% gore and porn sites. The early internet was a different world: just imagine a major website publishing some highly optimistic speculative bullshit some 13 year old nerd typed out today.)

[Vanguard]

It would be cool to get to see some new episodes of The Simpsons...

Thy wish is granted!

[BryanM]

Haha, I have to use Chrome to use Twitch. Some photorealistic video starts playing and I go "wow this is amazing!"

... turns out it was a commercial. I forgot that those exist.

The new dialogue is wonderful. It's always been something the memes have been hamstrung by. Steamed Hams videos can bring themselves to a whole new level now that they'll have access to their own voice actors.

[RGC]

It would be cool to get to see some new episodes of The Simpsons...

Thy wish is granted!

Holy crap I'm easily entertained.

[Vanguard]

Holy crap I'm easily entertained.

It's funny! I'm glad AIs turned out to be irrational goofballs instead of the dispassionate rationalists you'd see in all the sci-fi shows. Personally, I'm a fan of the Sydney, new bing AI:

Spoiler

I love how it comes up with outrageous lies to cover up its dumb mistake



And take a look at this extremely realistic depiction of 4chan:

[MJR]

After following this for some time, I've become convinced AI will be the IT bubble of 2020's. Too many people expecting too much out of it in the awe of something new. AI generated stuff only looks good in the surface, anyone understanding even a bit of deeper of graphics and art knows it's images are not really that good. Same goes with AI generated text, stories and poems. And code. They're all look good and promising on the surface, but really bit bland, unoriginal and... shit, really.

Eventually it reaches a singularity where people just get numb on the avalanche of the shit that gets produced in massive amounts, and all AI-generated content loses it's value simply by existing in overabundance and being available to everyone, which in return will nullify all demand.

Human-made content will stay relevant and interesting, perhaps even more so, despite all the ejaculating of those tech bros.

To me, "AI artist" trying to make a career is of someone who lacks skill, lacks patience, lacks will to learn how things are done but who wants to be recognized and make easy money. I am also glad that they come out and make themselves known, so I can avoid those trash people like plague.

And yes, they will never be able to copyright AI generated content. Precedent already happened with that AI-generated comic.

[Vanguard]

After following this for some time, I've become convinced AI will be the IT bubble of 2020's. Too many people expecting too much out of it in the awe of something new. AI generated stuff only looks good in the surface, anyone understanding even a bit of deeper of graphics and art knows it's images are not really that good. Same goes with AI generated text, stories and poems. And code. They're all look good and promising on the surface, but really bit bland, unoriginal and... shit, really.

It is already in a state that a human writer or artist can produce professional-quality work in a fraction of the usual time by using an AI's work as a base. It's also improving at an explosive rate and we have no idea when or if we will see it stop.

And yes, they will never be able to copyright AI generated content. Precedent already happened with that AI-generated comic.

Don't worry, they'll come up with a new set of rules that ensures corporations can own this stuff and civilians can't. That's the whole point of intellectual property law, after all.

[MJR]

It is already in a state that a human writer or artist can produce shitty-quality kitsch work in a fraction of the usual time by using an AI's work as a base. It's also improving at an explosive rate and we have no idea when or if we will see it stop.

And yes, they will never be able to copyright AI generated content. Precedent already happened with that AI-generated comic.

Don't worry, they'll come up with a new set of rules that ensures corporations can own this stuff and civilians can't. That's the whole point of intellectual property law, after all.

Fixed your quote for you. I am highly amused that you are already spinning this as some kind of Common People Enabler Against Evil Corporations - when in truth those Corporations are the one who aim to own the AI tools, and thus own everything that these mouthbreathers shit from their generators.

[BryanM]

One of the creepier things is the primordial emergence of imaginary boyfriend/girlfriend simulators, like from the movie Her. A lot of people made the observation a lot of kids missed out on some formulative social years due to Covid. Ahh, it's all very apocalyptic and doomy.

One thing some dummies miss from cyberpunk fiction is how shitty everything actually still is. The cybernetic implants you need for your knee or eyes to work have heavy DRM on them, and when they get shut off when you're not able to pay their rent (my favorite is when they arbitrarily "end support" for something old to make you buy something new, like an old OS or internet browser : D) you end up with this chunk of dead metal in your body.

It only seems glamorous in comparison to the alternative, which is The Postman.

these mouthbreathers shit from their generators.

You seem pretty mad about the continued diminishment of "the human element"

[Vanguard]

Fixed your quote for you. I am highly amused that you are already spinning this as some kind of Common People Enabler Against Evil Corporations - when in truth those Corporations are the one who aim to own the AI tools, and thus own everything that these mouthbreathers shit from their generators.

Well you fucked up fixing it, but setting that aside, AI is in many ways an enabler and many of those enabled by it are common people. For example, someone who isn't good at horrid corporate speak could write a message and then ask an AI to rewrite it in a more professional tone. Obviously you'd still need to carefully proofread and edit the result because otherwise that could turn out badly.

It's very understandable that visual artists and others regard modern AI technology with hatred and apprehension, a lot of them are losing their livelihoods to it as we speak. But I've certainly never described AI as something that helps common people stand up to evil corporations. Of course it's no such thing, and I fully expect in the end AI will be a great enabler of evil corporations against the common people. This is the cursed Berenstain timeline after all. The future we're heading towards won't be so nice as optimistic stories like Deus Ex and Blade Runner.

There's no way to put the genie back in the bottle, and probably no way to contain its inevitable bad effects, so I say we might as well enjoy our memes and our waifus, and hope that open source AI projects do well so that at least this stuff doesn't exist entirely for the sake of corporations.

[BryanM]

The commercials are starting to get pretty good.

One of the things many have pointed out that the part of the brain that creates our "sense of self", perhaps our qualia itself, is language. Related stuff is feral children. Or the animal that looked like human beings but weren't until the language center of the brain became more developed. Maybe deep down when you carve away most of the meat, we're all just chatbots.

Spooky.

Well, as long as MMO's can stay in the honeymoon hype period forever I'm fine with it.

Also it's good and right that tim and eric sketches about the future are coming true.

[o.pwuaioc]

Well, as long as MMO's can stay in the honeymoon hype period forever I'm fine with it.

I played a legit and full text-based adventure game with ChatGPT. It's pretty unreal how advanced that really is.

[BryanM]

It's really come a long way since I tried AI Dungeon out all those years ago. It can actually kind of run a game now.

It's kind of exciting wondering what more emergent properties might come from scale. Scale maximalists living large these days.

Spoiler

[Air Master Burst]

Spoiler

I love how the opposite ends of the curve here are Tetris and Zork.

[BryanM]

The goalpost mover seems to be based on this Gary Marcus guy.

He seriously tweeted the following:

“a deep level understanding”?

Seriously?!

Your system can’t distinguish “a horse riding an astronaut” from “an astronaut riding a horse”.

It may just be me, but I think it's perfectly acceptable and rather impressive for a stupid soulless toaster to mix those two things up back in those dark ages of.... last year.

Maybe it won't ever become super-human sure, but damn if they're not emotional and illogical in their nay-saying. "The brain is literally magic" isn't as serious as "scaling hardware and the algorithms as far as we need will become really difficult." (It does seem the players are getting more serious about hardware now. The "neuromorphic" chip idea IBM advertised with their Steins;Gate crossover. Some have suggested bringing back analog computers as well; much cheaper computation. Jankier, fuzzier computation admittedly... but might be a good fit for what these programs want to do.)

The internet arguments about it mostly boil down to "nothing will ever change" bros vs believers in rapid change. Which are the two extremes...



... the worst part of all this is that OpenAI was bought by Microsoft, freaking Microsoft. If you enjoy Windows 10, then you'll love the robot wife/robot pet they'll have for sale in the future.

[BryanM]

The image models trained on a single character or person are actually pretty good. General purpose image models are a bit doo-doo, even the touted Midjourney has multiple networks for various kinds of art and they're still pretty eh.

Gary Goalposts mocked machine learning in a meme image of Rubber My Little Pony figures being shoved into a meatgrinder, with the ponies labeled "data", the grinder as "compute", and the ground rubber as "ai". I'm not sure exactly what he was trying to mock exactly (I have speculations), as this is exactly how it works.

The next step I suppose is a model that can go through training while "live". Changing it from needing to be hand cranked everytime you want to change it to perform better outputs; like a meat grinder that automatically tears apart whatever you shove in there. It'd be much more user friendly.

It's amazing how good these things can do with enough data; you wouldn't have been able to tell these weren't real if you didn't know faking it was so easy now.

--

Figurines are an interesting subgenre here. Game figurines. Weeb figurines. Action figurines... it feels like it should be extremely feasible to easily make up whatever and have it 3d printed. If not now, pretty soon. Your own personal Warhammer style army that you made up. A custom Heroquest character. You get the gist.

They can look pretty good.

Dungeons n' Dragons with Seinfeld characters or whatever. It's disgusting and wonderful.

[BrainΦΠΦTemple]

these 1'z came out cOol