Submitted by: aka.attrition
The Power of Artificial Intelligence in Pictures
A lot has been, and is being, written about AI, the good, the bad, and the ugly. There is a lot to digest and try to understand especially for us lay-people. The other day I came across a marketing video from Adobe, of Photoshop fame and PDF files, about their latest version of Photoshop which now incorporates some AI tech. It is really quite impressive and I thought I would share it with you as it shows off some of the power of AI when applied to images/photos/etc. and highlights what we can expect in the near future.
The video is linked below and runs for about 5+ minutes but to give you the gist of the whole thing I thought a few stills would convey it quickly. Basically you can now take any image, a photo for example, and with a few very basic instructions, typed in simple English, create a new image modified to your desires. Let’s have a look:
We start with this basic stock image, a salt pan.
The presenter now draws a circle (using the mouse) on this picture where he wants to show a classic car and types in the instruction “classic car from the 50’s”. Photoshop then offers a variety of classic car images and, picking one, displays in the scene like this:
Notice the shadow added beneath the car and that the shadow is over the salt formations, not just a block of grey. In addition, there is light showing underneath and coming from behind the car.
Next up, the presenter wants to draw a small pool of water in front of this car. Again, he uses the mouse to outline the area where the pool should be and types in “reflection pool with blue water” and here it is:
Now this is really impressive; the program not only draws the pool but adds an appropriate salt pan border to the water, adds a shadow in the pool (bottom right of the pool) which it can only do if the program has figured out where the sun would be in this scene, adds a correctly inverted reflection of the car in the pool with a shimmer effect, and finally, adds a reflection of the cloud which it must have figured out would be visible to the observer at this viewed angle.
The presenter then finishes with a truly remarkable touch; he expands the image to the left and right as below:
… and then asks the program to fill in the newly created areas without using any prompt at all, nothing, he just clicks the “generate” button and lets the application itself decide how to fill in the picture which it does as follows:
Note that without any guiding prompts from the presenter whatsoever the program; (1) adds a mountain range to the left, (2) more clouds, and finally (3) adds the sun at an appropriate location in relation to the shadows in the picture. No manual painting, no airbrushing, no superimposing other images, nothing. Now that’s impressive.
So why did I write this article? Well, besides this being quite a remarkable technical achievement it also serves as a warning. We are now at a stage where tech, with the aid of AI tools, allows anyone, even those without any IT or related art/image/video skills, to create virtually any image or video they want. Nothing can be taken at face-value, nothing can be taken for granted, and everything must be suspect.
We are faced with a world where truth-out-there will need to be looked at with ever deeper skepticism.
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As an aside but related; several years ago I made a prediction to my family and social circle that within 15 years you won’t have screen actors any more, it will all be computer generated. This will happen not only because the tech will allow it to be done but also because actors are costly prima-donnas and FoS and studios will be glad to be shod of them all.
I don’t claim it was a unique idea; William Gibson, one of the earliest sci-fi authors which popularized ideas like The Matrix and is credited with having coined the term “cyberspace” and having envisioned both the Internet and virtual reality before either existed, wrote a book called Idoru. The story is about a Japanese singer and idol which only exists in virtual reality, as software, and driven by AI. “She” is fantastically popular in the real world with millions of adoring fans. This is the future, the near future.
Here’s the link to the video: Adobe Photoshop Firefly
We already knew of the deep-fake software that can create fake videos of any politician, head of state, etc. AI has just expanded this “fakery” into every aspect of presentation material making, as you stated aka.attrition, everything suspect. Quite honestly, I’m very surprised something has not already been done in a very big way to attempt to fool us all.
As each day passes I can see how the antichrist will pull of great deception to fool many. We are living in very interesting times.
Yup, it’s really not possible to tell the fake from the real out there anymore. Maybe it will bring a revival in the search for Truth and an inward search and the contemplation of the bigger questions in life. Not the BS out there.
Still, I am amazed at how far this tech has come in a relatively short period of time. Many people on this site (say, 60+) can remember a day when walking into an office building there was not a single computer screen to be seen anywhere. Typewriters on desks and filing cabinets but not a single computer. In just 40 years we went from nothing to Star Trek gadgets in our hands. When do we get beam-me-up-Scotty ?
It is like that day we all realized some xyz was fake (9/11, Sandy Hook, whatever). Then the next logical question is: what else is fake? And there goes the deep dive, if you are brave enough to go there.
So now we realize that images, moving or still, are all suspect.
Then what else should be suspect. EVERYTHING?
What about things I see in my immediate environment? My fridge, my house, my dog? Or things I can touch and feel?
And we arrive at the same old question whether this simulation is just very, very sophisticated?
When these tools began appearing (years ago) allowing the user to modify images and video it still required the user to have considerable skills with the tools to create the desired effect. Photoshop experts could do things but the average user had no chance at realistic results. This new tech allows anyone with the ability to type simple ideas in English to create amazingly powerful fakes … brave new world indeed.
Back then the photoshop experts could observe minute details and recognize a fake. I’m not sure if this new technology has any “tells.”
So far most of the ones I see have a ‘fake-ish’ feel to them. Then again I’ve been using P-shop for 25 years. It usually takes viewing a whole series of images to start spotting the tells. But I assume this will improve over time. So will the fake written articles. Eventually we will have to assume that everything is fake, or just go back to enjoying the taste of that steak like the guy in the Matrix.
A “tell” in this photo would be the weird additional reflection in the pool.
A common tell in AI pics of people is the hands. AI can’t do it any better than Jenner or Mulvaney.
Like the old cassette tape commercial used to say: “Is it real (live), or is it Memorex?”
Only her hairdresser knows for sure.
To clear your mind, turn off the computer and take a walk in the sunshine.
I just spent most of my day on the homestead tending to the bees, the garden, the chickens, and multiple other tasks. I’m with you on this one.
Yep. I picked the last of my sweet peas, picked the first green beans and planted more field peas. Being in the fresh air and diggin in the dirt is one of the joys of life.
… or in the rain … or in the snow … or in the fog … just take a walk …
And this I think, could be the downfall of the whole deception. People could end up assuming that everything they see is fake. Maybe that would be a benefit in the fight for truth?
Hey, I used to be in the Slide-Rule club in the junior high school I attended.
Also, the school was named after a Confererate General.
So it’s been torn down? Or renamed St. Floyd Memorial Indoctrination & Trans Dance Remedial Reeducation Center?
How did we get here so fast? Moore’s law trebled and the abandonment of “whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are pure… dwell on these” We’ve stopped dwelling.
In ’74, my Management Professor told us that during our lifetime, we would see a computer with 1 million bytes of information that was no bigger than his desk. He was on the right track but did not think small enough i.e. a smartphone.
Wrote this back in 2019, pre covid…
AI + project Bluebeam = The UFO’s have landed. All Nations must now be ruled by United Nations who will deal with the ‘ threat ‘ on our behalf.
Yes, and it is of my opinion that “The Great Deception” spoken of in the end days will be aliens (fallen angels) that will present themselves and state they are the reason for us.
People will buy it, as ever:
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Can’t speak to what brought the buildings down. But, I was there that morning. Saw pieces of airplane on the ground. Front landing gear looked like a giant bed frame wheel in the middle of the street before it dawned on me what was happening.
Langley’s lie here confirms the opposite truth.
Please allow me to clarify. I fully believe that (3 letter agency of your choice) if not funded, actively aided and abetted the events of the day. The US military obviously stood down and / or sent a missile into the Pentagon and shot down the plane in PA. The buildings in NYC were brought down by explosives.
However, I, being late to work across the street from the WTC as usual, was on the last subway through that station, it skipped the stop, so I had to walk an unusual route that day. I had my head buried in my PDA and music on. It took me a really long time to figure out what was happening around me. I clearly remember papers flying everywhere and thinking, oh, must be a fire at the trade center. Then I saw what appeared to be a wheel from a bed frame with the little post sticking up, except it was landing gear sized on the street in Manhattan. I was allowed back into WFC 5 less than a month after the event. Have photos.
Let’s see the photos.
Imagine what people will do if they see Christ projected into the sky and speaking to them in their own language, in their own heads.
Simple. Christ’s Return will be accompanied by ACTION. It those actions do not match the reputation? You know you’re being gaslit.
And if He appears in the Sky? The ONLY thing He is going to say is “Come up here!” followed by the immediate disappearance of EVERY Christian on the planet.
THAT’s when things really start to get spicy.
This has been the goal of the god of this world to carry out an unrestricted war against humanity. The lies being told today are especially difficult to cut thru because the deceptions are so convincing. There are no photos, videos or media that can be trusted when in a sea of deceptions.
IMO, it will be more important now to know in deeper measure the character of God the Creator and the word left to guide us thru these last days.
Matthew 24:24
For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.
Now more than ever.
I tried posting a relevant video but was blocked from posting it.
That’s weird.
Try posting a few random letters first. Then, edit the post, adding the relevant link(s). Works every time.
Yes. I find that I can’t post a video link unless I add a tad of text to my post.
I’ve found that when the “copy embed code” command doesn’t work, then the “copy URL” command will.
Something did not get put back together
correctlythe same as before the outage.I’m guessing that improvements were made to the site after the last global backup. Those wouldn’t be included in the restore point.
Sometimes it’s best to think around the programming instead of going through it line by line.
The specialty of AI is deceit. Ezra Klein said the programmers he knows talk of summoning demons. Probably based on the Musk quote below:
Geordi Rose and D-Wave.
If it comes from the mainstream media or ANY politician, you already know it is fake. They will continue the lies and back it up with fake AI generated pictures. Will even more sheeple be deceived? Probably.
Possible positive effect of A.I. on the power structure stranglehold:
EXCERPT:
AI is going to replace many human jobs – especially in and among the MICIMATT. A clear majority of the jobs created and maintained by Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman and their thousands of subsidiaries, as well as their media outreach and lobbying, and those inside the Pentagon, are all at risk from AI. We will be able to slash the military and defense and intelligence budgets significantly without impacting actual “voter” jobs – in effect breaking the iron triangle that has gripped the United States in a dangerous and costly spiral since World War II.
Building that parallel society, that bypasses the current one: the remnant who will survive.
Nope, never happens. Govt and the mic never voluntarily reduce themselves in size or influence.
Vote A.I. 2024!
(… vote not necessary)
AI already knew your vote and voted for you.
I can actually imagine some people deciding it is just better to let AI handle it and run things, since we can’t trust each other to have honest elections.
Modeen news.
“Deepfake and training exercise video at 6”
Tons of fake shit out there. I noticed early on that masks were photoshopped onto faces in pictures of groups of people including large protest groups etc.
Yes indeed.
We would best all be from the Show-Me-State beginning now.
Wow, this would have really come in handy for those fake moon landing photos!
Remember, Scripture warns us about images.
Coincidentally and on a lark, I allocated my yesterday dabbling with the FREE tier demo of Stable Diffusion Online. Most of the images I got back from it were visceral, powerful, but horrifying in their subtle and overt wrongness. Eliciting beauty, calmness, sanity from the machine intellect was not available at my price point. Only nightmare fuel for the mind’s eye, which incentivized me to see how far I could go in that downward course.
It is then one realizes, in the near future, only these low-end “democratized” tools will be what is available for rural trailer towns and the urban throwaway, youth ghettos to express themselves. (As Orwell wrote; a narrowed language limits thought.)
Without the kidz knowing that they must financially improve their lot, they will never visually communicate online with the beauty and sophistication of constantly improving AI wares of accelerating expense. Similar to the 2013 film Elysium, an ever widening gulf will reach to the heavens. Assuming 1st world civilization continues, their minds will be stranded, forsaken, in Uncanny Valley.
I’d like to post highlights (lol), but I keep my forensic software pages as professional as possible to maintain trust. Any ideas for anonymized img hosting?
language limits thought
This would be on my top 10 list of life observations, and one of the essential points Orwell was trying to teach. The more they can emoji-fy the language, the dumber people will be. It is happening before our eyes.
Note the complex sentence structure and expression present in older writings, movies, etc.
Aka attrition. Thank you for posting this. So much to think about. My gut, A aye aye gives it horrible signs, just like the vaccines.
Yeah, lots to think about, Leah.