Robot generated computer art from Dall-E

Remember the excitement when Steve Jobs introduced a cellphone that could check e-mail, surf the Web and answer the phone? And remember how much cooler the iPhone got when a high-quality camera was added?

The iPhone, first introduced in 2007, went on to become the world’s best selling consumer device, and is the last true worldwide tech gadget phenom that I can recall.

We finally got another one in 2022, in the guise of artificial intelligence breakthroughs that will change the way we look at art, photography and the written word forever. Putting robots to work for creation will put people out of work, force teachers to change the way they grade papers and for the rest of us, fascinate us with a new form of AI art.

The OpenAI website brought us ChatGPT for text and Dall-E for computer generated photos. A few weeks ago here I wrote about the new AI Selfie apps like Lensa which use AI to transform ordinary snaps of us into animated masterpieces,. And I predicted their popularity would be short-lived, because they’re too expensive.

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The technology isn’t going anywhere though, and it’s showing up in many other apps already. And after you’ve gotten the crazy and expensive selfie out of your system, prepared to save money and be wowed by Dall-E. I asked the robot to create an image with the directive: “A orange tabby cat in a tuxedo on a country lane holding a surfboard.” Two seconds later, and wow, as you can see in the above photo. It also gave me a sharply adorned fox too.

The query above: “Photowalk on a country lane with two photographers and dog.” Remarkably good, even though the dog renditions are pretty poor. You can even ask it to produce a variation as digital art. Sometimes they’re pretty good, other times not so. But that’s today. Imagine what we’ll get down the road.

With Dall-E you get a handful of images for free, and then it’s just $15 for 115 images. This is way more reasonable than the AI smartphone apps, which in the case of Lensa, is $35 for a year subscription, and then a host of prices for a handful of AI Selfies, starting at $4.

On the word side, many people are concerned that lazy students will ask ChatGPT to write their papers and allow broke newspaper publishers to let ChatGPT take over for journalists.

I understand the worry. I asked ChatGPT to describe my PhotowalksTV series, and not only was it right on, in a sense it did an even better job than I have done in talking about it.

"PhotowalksTV with Jefferson Graham is a YouTube channel hosted by Jefferson Graham, a journalist and photographer who covers topics related to photography, technology, and social media (Well, two out of three.) The channel features a variety of content, including interviews with photographers and industry experts, tutorial videos on photography and technology, and vlogs documenting Graham's travels and experiences as a photographer. PhotowalksTV may be of interest to individuals who are interested in learning about photography, technology, or social media (again, 2 out of 3!), or who enjoy following the adventures of a professional photographer. The channel's content may be useful for photographers of all skill levels, from beginners who are looking for tips and techniques to more experienced photographers who are seeking inspiration and new ideas."

I also asked ChatGPT to spit out predictions for 2023 in tech, and what I got was total garbage, rehashing that cloud computing, AI, 5G and virtual reality were going to continue to grow. What else is new?

Then I asked it to compose me a poem about my hometown, Manhattan Beach, and what I got back 5 seconds later was scary. How many words could you rhyme in 5 seconds?

Manhattan Beach Poetry

Manhattan Beach, oh how sweet
Your sand is soft beneath my feet
The waves crash gently on the shore
As I bask in the sun, I can't help but adore
The pier, it stretches out to sea
A place to walk and just be
The shops and restaurants, all unique
Offering something for everyone to seek
The people, they're all so kind
A community that's truly one of a kind
From the Strand to the tree-lined streets
Manhattan Beach, my heart skips beats
So come on down and take a stroll

AI is the technology that runs Google search, Facebook, TikTok, Alexa, Siri and on and on, but in the case of what we saw in 2022, now seems slightly more human, per the Atlantic. The photos and art are either breathtaking or really tacky, and the words sometimes right on, often times garblygook, but clearly AI is here to stay, it will only get way better, and in a nutshell, we better learn to deal with it, because it ain’t going away.

More on AI:

The Atlantic: https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2022/12/why-the-rise-of-ai-is-the-most-important-story-of-the-year/672308/

New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/29/technology/personaltech/new-tech-2023-ai-chat-vr.html

Nieman Lab: https://www.niemanlab.org/2022/12/the-year-ai-truly-arrives-and-with-it-the-reckoning/

The real thing still looks pretty great, right? Wednesday’s sunset in Manhattan Beach

A word from our sponsor

Thank you SmugMug for supporting PhotowalksTV on YouTube, the newsletter and the iPhone Photo Show podcast, and kudos to past sponsors Flipboard and Mylio Photos as well for helping to keep Photowalks out on the road.

The New Year is a great time to take control of your ever-growing photo library. Do you know where all your images are? Are they backed up and safely in one place? I use SmugMug to archive my photos and video as a virtual hard drive, run my website and show off my portfolio in a way that I’d like my photos presented. For photo and video backup, SmugMug can’t be beat. It has better rates and terms than Apple, Google or Dropbox, and you’ll get no nag message telling you you’re out of room, because SmugMug has unlimited storage. The company has a free two-week trial at http://www.smugmug.com

Give it a try!

Photo Tips!

I leave you today with my latest PhotowalksTV episode, a guide to 10 of my favorite smartphone photo tips and I’ll be back tomorrow with more in-depth detail on each of them.

Thanks as always for reading, watching and listening. Happy new year everyone!

Jeff

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AI: the tech/photo story of 2022