Welcome to the 161th insertion of DEMUR®, an analytical series highlighting the intricacies of the artistic world and the minutiae lying within. In this episode, we take a step into the metaverse, exploring our ever-nearing virtual reality alongside Artificial Intelligence and photo editing software.
Back in November of last year, OpenAI’s much-anticipated AI system ‘DALLE-2’ opened for public access. Users could now generate unlimited high-resolution imagery with a text-based search via their website. An improvement from its predecessor, DALLE-1, the latest edition, would allow users to manipulate a smaller, more effective algorithm to achieve their desired image.
Within the same month, ChatGPT, Dalle’s text-based counterpart would also release. Evolving around English, the machine uses deep learning to crunch a vast dataset leading up to the year 2021. Then disconnecting, much like DALLE, the robot uses comparative tools to garner an understanding of conversational inputs and outputs, which is then progressively tweaked for accuracy.
The initial launch drew from 12 billion parameters in DALLE's case, whereas the second only utilized 3.5. Despite a smaller information pool, the latter was favoured by 70% of users and generated 4x better image quality - but why is this important? As we enter the digital age, these intelligence-based softwares lead with both promising results and potentially negative impacts. The research has uplifted media-based industries like marketing and entertainment but foreshadows risks in the authenticity of digital content.
Moreover, the impact on the traditional artistic industry has been a main source of discussion. While AI-generated images may provide a more efficient and cost-effective solution for certain projects, they may also replace the need for human creativity. This raises questions about the role of artists in a world where AI can generate realistic images with the touch of a button, and may heighten distrust towards automated systems. In all fairness, one of these paragraphs was written using AI and you couldn’t tell, could you?
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