Gingerbread Dragon

There are two schools of thought on generative AI and its contribution to our culture of creation. The pessimists say they'll replace humans and result in regurgitated artistic sludge. The optimists say they'll boost human creativity, democratize creation and supercharge the talented. While I understand and agree with points among the spectrum, I sit in the halls of the optimists. I see immense opportunity with these tools.

Words are Important. Tools is not a word I chose without care. It's what these things are—exciting, bewildering, frightening tools. Place a chisel in the hands of an expert and they'll create a masterpiece. Place a circular saw in the hands of a careless amateur and they'll create a disaster. Tools can destroy as easy as they can create. And no tool fits all needs. Even if we sometimes treat them like they do.

The other evening, my wife had taken our son upstairs to get ready for bed. That left me with my daughter. On any other night I would've herded her upstairs. But I'd been experimenting with DALL·E 3 and I had an idea to bring her along for the ride. She's our little artist. I was curious what she'd decide to create given a new tool.

I told her that dad's computer can make any image she could imagine. While not true, she is only five years old. It intrigued her but she didn't quite understand. With a dose of skepticism she popped up, a curious look in her eye. I loaded ChatGPT and asked her what she wanted to see. Anything she wanted.

"Draw everything!"

It sputtered. Too broad. One of the tool's many limitations. I tweaked the prompt to generate an image that represented an artist "drawing everything."

Ignore the blatant typo—it's not a great image. There's no doubt we could explore this concept and hone it into something with an opinion. But I was more interested in discovering her idea.

After some discussion, she asked me for a Christmas tree, with ornaments, and stockings hanging on the wall. Guess where we were sitting? In our living room, with a Christmas tree, ornaments, and stockings. To be fair, I'd put her on the spot. It's notable that presents were missing in her vision (we hadn't wrapped any yet). She confirmed she'd like presents. Six presents. Under the tree.

She didn't notice, but there are far more than six presents under the tree. Another limitation.

The longer you use these tools, the more you begin to recognize a "sameness" in the images they generate. I don't need a watermark to tell me a generative AI created an image. These limitations will be overcome, but the mistakes, uniform texture, mixed perspectives, odd lighting, and muddiness are a dead giveaway.

After asking my daughter for tweaks, I realized she couldn't think outside of the room in front of her eyes. I decided if I wanted to see anything else I'd have to shift her mind elsewhere. I explained to her a massive dragon with a desert on its back. Her contribution?

"Make it a water dragon!"

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