This was my very first experience with AI-generated images. Of course I knew of them, but I’d never been interested enough to go and try it for myself. I was quite mind blown by what is possible in terms of creating visual elements based on written prompts. It seems so futuristic to me still (I feel like I’m in the cartoon I used to watch as a kid: The Jetsons). I found that the hyper-realistic images were more “impressive” than the creative ones, however. We experimented with creating the “perfect room”, with a bathtub, a big window overlooking nature, tea, and books and the AI came up with some incredible things. I realized I must have seen many interior decoration images that I thought were pictures of real places when in fact they were made by AI. That’s something I will be more conscious of from now on.

However, I found that anything more abstract or creative felt kind of “tacky” to me (I should have a better word for this, but currently don’t). Nothing I was able to get from my prompts seemed even remotely close to what a living, breathing artist can come up with, and to be honest, my thought was: “thank goodness”. I wonder if playing more with the details I include to create the image, like the style, the aesthetic requirements I make could produce more attractive results, but at the same time I don’t know that I want AI to be that successful when it comes to creativity. I really prefer human-made art, because to me art is in part, by definition, the expression of individuality. So even if AI comes up with beautiful images, they will never carry the emotional charge that a human being might put into their work. Ultimately, it’s that emotional charge that interests me most.

That being said, here is my AI generated image: