Category Archives: artificial intelligence

Can Artificial Intelligence Draw Emotion in a Face?

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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

craiyon_044534_The_face_of_a_man_overwhelmed_by_society_br_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

craiyon_044711_The_face_of_a_man_overwhelmed_by_information_br_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

craiyon_044906_The_face_of_a_digital_man_overwhelmed_br_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

craiyon_045041_The_face_of_a_digital_woman_overwhelmed_br_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

craiyon_045211_The_face_of_a_cyborg_overwhelmed_br_I’m liking this!  What else can we try?

The face of a robot overwhelmed

craiyon_045428_The_face_of_a_robot_overwhelmed_br_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

craiyon_045553_The_face_of_a_android_overwhelmed_br_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

craiyon_045814_The_face_of_a_cyborg_crying_br_I love this thing!  I could sit here all day typing variations!

The face of a cyborg overwhelmed with grief

craiyon_050029_The_face_of_a_cyborg_overwhelmed_with_grief_br_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

craiyon_050319_The_face_of_a_cyborg_overwhelmed_with_anger_br_No subtlety there…

The face of a cyborg overwhelmed with love

craiyon_050446_The_face_of_a_cyborg_overwhelmed_with_love_br_The heart – symbol of love.

The face of a cyborg overwhelmed with love in a painterly style

craiyon_050817_The_face_of_a_cyborg_overwhelmed_with_love_in_a_painterly_style_br_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

craiyon_050952_The_face_of_a_male_cyborg_overwhelmed_with_love_in_a_painterly_style_br_Amazing…

The face of a man overwhelmed with grief in a painterly style

craiyon_065722_the_face_of_a_man_overwhelmed_with_grief_in_a_painterly_style_br_😯 There are no words…

The face of a woman overwhelmed with grief in a painterly style

craiyon_065846_the_face_of_a_woman_overwhelmed_with_grief_in_a_painterly_style_br_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.

 

 

Artificial Intelligence – Can It Make Art?

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I’m checking out art created by artificial intelligence at craiyon.com.  You type in some words and the AI creates nine pictures from the prompt.  My goal here is not to create great art but to see what the AI can do.  What are the edges of it’s ability?  Can it create anything really interesting?

Here’s the first thing I tried:

Two people in love

craiyon_031225_two_people_in_love_br_Interesting, but I was expecting more.  There’s two figures in most of the images but the abstract concept of “love” is mostly expressed by red hearts.  The AI is not showing “love” in the art it’s showing a symbol of love.

Maybe I’ve already found something it can’t do?  Does it take abstract concepts like “love” and convert them to simple symbolic images?  These look like bland lazy power point clip-art.  Lets try some more:

The human adventure is just beginning

craiyon_031803_The_human_adventure_is_just_beginning_br_OK, that’s better.  I can see “adventure” expressed in most of the images.  It’s mostly outdoor mountain climbing but that’s better than just simple heart symbols.

“The human adventure is just beginning” is the tagline to Star Trek – the Motion Picture, but I guess Craiyon didn’t get that at all.  Searching on the same words in Google Images returns ONLY Star Trek pictures so this AI works very differently.  It’s not just trolling the internet to find images that are related.  There’s nothing in the Craion’s images to suggest Star Trek at all.

Screenshot 2022-08-01 at 20-58-52 The human adventure is just beginning - Google Search cropOK, let’s try something REALLY abstract…

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times

craiyon_032554__span__em_It_was_the_best_of_times__it_was_the_worst_of_times__em___span_OK, I don’t know what to make of this at all.  It’s interesting which is good but I’m not sure where any of this is coming from.  Maybe “people in the news”?

Let’s try something more direct.

I make SciFi

craiyon_033416_I_make_SciFi_br_OK…  Looks good but all the pictures have exactly the same style of SciFi even down to the spaceship designs.  It’s that generic SciFi style you see everywhere especially in games these days.  Maybe I should type out “science fiction” instead of using an abbreviation.

I make science fiction

craiyon_033543_I_make_science_fiction_br_That’s pretty much exactly the same…

I make SciFi 50s

craiyon_033741_I_make_SciFi_50s_br_OK, there’s a different style, though I’d say it’s a little more 70s than 50s.

I make SciFi 70s

craiyon_033932_I_make_SciFi_70s_br_Hmmm…  It’s not getting the style differences for the years.  Maybe I should try robots?

Robot roll call

craiyon_034233_Robot_roll_call_br_Now everything is a cartoon.  I wonder how it determines the style if you aren’t specific about it.  I’m going to just keep trying different stuff.

Brave New World

craiyon_034542_Brave_New_World_br_Wow!  That’s interesting.  There’s certainly some variety and emotion here.  I guess you just have to hit on the right phrase for it to make a leap beyond the surface meaning of the words.

1984

craiyon_034742_1984_br_

Well it didn’t get the reference to the novel by Orwell (I didn’t think it would) but I guess it DID understand the number was supposed to be a year.  All the images seem to be from a mid-eighties time period, I think.

I wonder what would happen if I input some song lyrics?

Stepping outside she is free

craiyon_035519_Stepping_outside_she_is_free_br_Well… Feet walking outside.  These images didn’t pick up the poetry of the line at all.

Words are meaningless and forgettable

craiyon_035935_Words_are_meaningless_and_forgettable_br_More symbols.  “Words” = scrabble pieces.  More clip-art for corporate power point presentations.  The letters are unreadable but I don’t think that has anything to do with the phrase I typed in.  I have heard that Craiyon has trouble with text.

a candy colored clown they call the sandman

craiyon_040413_a_candy_colored_clown_they_call_the_sandman_br_Woah!  Yep, those are Candy Colored Clowns.  The direct straightforward descriptions yield predictable results.

The dreams in which I’m dying are the best I’ve ever had

craiyon_040827_The_dreams_in_which_I_m_dying_are_the_best_I_ve_ever_had_br_Wow!  That went somewhere interesting.  I wasn’t expecting the drama in these images.

I wish I was a spaceman, the fastest guy alive

craiyon_041219_I_wish_I_was_a_spaceman__the_fastest_guy_alive_br_Oh well… Spaceman, that’s about it.  I was at least expecting some of the images to reflect the speed aspect.

Expecting it to find the poetry of a phrase seems to be hit or miss.  Maybe I should stop trying to throw it curve balls and be more descriptive and tell it specifically what I want.

SciFi adventure man Picaso style

craiyon_041632_SciFi_adventure_man_Picaso_style_br_Hmmm… OK. Sure… It’s a SciFi adventure man if he’s in a post-apocalyptic world.  Not sure if this really looks like Picasso though.  Oh wait I mis-spelled Picasso….

SciFi adventure man Picasso style

craiyon_042028_SciFi_adventure_man_Picasso_style_br_Woah!  There’s Picasso!  One letter off made a big difference!  I think the SciFi got buried in the style though.

SciFi adventure man dali style

craiyon_042635_SciFi_adventure_man_dali_style_br_We’re making some art now!  SciFi still means roaming the post apocalyptic desert apparently.  Let’s try spelling out “science fiction” to see if it changes things.

science fiction adventure man dali style

craiyon_042908_science_fiction_adventure_man_dali_style_br_Eh… Not as interesting.  And apparently t-shirts are part of it now presumably because you can buy Dali’s art on t-shirts somewhere on the internet.

I’m going to try adding the word “face” to get a close-up of the man.

science fiction adventure man face dali style

craiyon_043042_science_fiction_adventure_man_face_dali_style_br_OK, Now we’re getting just Dali’s face with hints of t-shirts.  Craiyon is getting off track.  I’m going to try limiting everything to faces next to see what happens.  I’ll leave that to the next post though because this is already getting way too long.

Craiyon seems much more primitive than other AI art projects I have seen (but not tried) like Dall-E 2 and Midjourney.  Those others seem to be able to create images that are much more realistic like they were made by professional artists.  I bet they’re much more controllable too.  That’s great but maybe not quite as interesting to me as Craiyon’s screwed up faces and unexpected results.  Realistic is good, but I think interesting is better.

I’m concerned that as AI drawing technology gets better and better, all AI art might become more bland and predictable, just like what’s happened to most of the art on sites like ArtStation.  A group-think of what is good and professional develops in the community that is then picked up and exaggerated by an algorithm that brings all the “best” to the top.  Pretty soon everything looks exactly the same.  Everyone is seeing and creating the same thing.

This is a special moment in the nascent development of AI art creation and we should take the time to appreciate the crazy and unexpected images for what they are, ART.

Check it out Craiyon for yourself.