I’m continuing to check out art created by artificial intelligence at craiyon.com. You type in some words and the AI creates nine pictures from the prompt.
Yesterday on my first go I was just trying to see what the AI could do. What were the edges of it’s ability? Could it create anything really interesting? Answer: yes.
Today I’m going to try to get it to draw interesting and expressive faces. How dramatic can we make them? Here’s my first try:
The face of a man overwhelmed by society
Wow, not bad. I’ve heard that Craiyon has difficulty with faces and they certainly are warped, but I like that. It makes them more dramatic and artistic. If these images were more realistic, like photographs, I don’t think they would be as interesting.
Let’s try some variations:
The face of a man overwhelmed by information
OK, not as good, but not bad. The “information” is kinda flat and covering too much of the face to see the emotion.
Next…
The face of a digital man overwhelmed
I was trying to get some sort of synthetic man under stress but ended up with heads with data projected on them.
Let’s try some women.
The face of a digital woman overwhelmed
Hmmm… That’s a little more interesting. Not sure what the red line at the top left is but there’s more emotion in these faces. I think changing the gender made a difference.
Who else can be overwhelmed?
The face of a cyborg overwhelmed
I’m liking this! What else can we try?
The face of a robot overwhelmed
Eh… It’s that cliched white plastic robot face. We lost almost all the emotion and it’s all the same bland generic robot. Except it’s not just a robot. It’s an ANDROID.
The face of an android overwhelmed
Oh no! Our corporate overlords are invading our art! Words change meaning over time. Context matters. Android isn’t a robot designed to emulate a human anymore. It’s a cartoon corporate mascot for a phone operating system! We’re way off track…
Tell the AI what to do!
The face of a cyborg crying
I love this thing! I could sit here all day typing variations!
The face of a cyborg overwhelmed with grief
I’m surprised that this “grief” render doesn’t have any crying. …well, maybe the bottom right.
The face of a cyborg overwhelmed with anger
No subtlety there…
The face of a cyborg overwhelmed with love
The heart – symbol of love.
The face of a cyborg overwhelmed with love in a painterly style
Now we’re talking! Let’s try this “painterly style” with other things.
The face of a male cyborg overwhelmed with love in a painterly style
Amazing…
The face of a man overwhelmed with grief in a painterly style
😯 There are no words…
The face of a woman overwhelmed with grief in a painterly style
The answer is… Yes. Artificial intelligence can draw emotion in a face, you just have to find the right words to prompt it. It’s part the ability of the AI and part your direction. Iteration is the key. If you stumble across a corporate mascot, back up and try another path.
Next time I’m going to try to create interesting faces giving the craiyon AI as little information as possible.