Okay, I am very much not a fan of what is currently being called "AI".
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| My standards for what can legitimately be called "artificial intelligence" are not low. |
I saw a video that compared it to polyester, which was also introduced as a new Modern Miracle, then overused in applications for which it was not suited, thus gaining a reputation as crap, until it was eventually used in a more limited fashion or combined with more natural products.
And of course there are all the not-minor insalubrious effects on the environment, the economy, and society.
That said...
I have fallen under the spell of JuJuBit, a AI-driven website that allows you to create 3D tabletop game pieces better than any other method I've used. For example:
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| The camera on my elderly iPhone really doesn't do these figures (The Penny Plunderer, The Red Bee, Bull's-Eye, Wild Dog 2.0 and 1.0, and Dollman) justice. |
All of these were generated by JuJuBit by a combination of image and textual input. For example, the AI didn't really detect the pennies in the Penny Plunder image, so I added the prompt "holding pennies", and lo, there were pennies.
Anything that produces anything this good, specialized, and reasonably costed must SURELY be deeply evil.
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| Or perhaps just deeply misunderstood. |
You may judge that for yourself. I know only that I have been pleasantly surprised at this new means of creating Heroclix sculpts that would be otherwise impossible In forthcoming posts, I'm going to focus on each figure, tell you why I made it, and what dial I'll be using for it. In the meantime, you may want to experiment with using the site itself.
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| Before Winslow destroys it. |
AI is neither good nor evil; the problem is finding good uses for it (since most of the things it's used for are bad). Here are a few uses I consider acceptable:
ReplyDelete- A friend of mine uses it to analyze news articles for bias. Of course you don't shut off your brain and go with its conclusions, but you think about them.
- I'm a fan of music performed in entirely the wrong genre. I love that Postmodern Jukebox does that sort of thing, but they don't go far enough. What if I want to hear "Smells like Teen Spirit" in country / Western style? Or Metallica's "Enter Sandman" done as a lavish Broadway musical? Or the Beatles White Album as Motown (yes including "Revolution No 9")? People have used AI to give me that.
- How about medical research? Figuring out how complex fold themselves is the sort of thing that mere mortal minds can't always handle. Let the AI do it.
AI is a tool, and like any tool it extends human faculties. The trick is extending the RIGHT faculties.
- HJF1
I'm actually far more impressed with 3D printing than I am with AI. I even bought a printer, but realized there was no point in keeping it since I can just buy full prints off the Internet. So I gave it to the twins next door. As an old-school action figure collector, 3D printing has allowed me to fill in blanks in my collection, particularly for vintage figure lines that are no longer produced. You can get figures you wished that they had produced, or figures that are so rare and expensive that it's almost impossible to acquire them. I know they use AI to create the models more effectively now (though a few years ago, it wasn't available and people created very impressive sculpts with lesser tools).
ReplyDelete"So I gave it to the twins next door." Twins given a machine that can make copies of things? This sounds disturbingly like a supervillain origin....
ReplyDeleteMore than you know. They're identical, but one is autistic. That's like Gotham City 101.
DeleteThey are good kids, though. Plus their father is a big comic/superhero fan. Best neighbors you could ask for.