A week ago I created, for the first time, an illustration using generative AI—more specifically, Dall-E. It’s the illustration accompanying this post. Yes, it’s of an unhappy robot. In a spaceship. Sitting on a toilet. It’s puerile, but in my defense, I did it on a whim. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Dall-E is amazing, but I expect that this is the last time I’ll use such an image. For one thing, I think that no matter how outlandish, such images seem to share a bland, made-by-robots dullness that’s the opposite of creativity. (I’m not offering that as objective reality. Instead, it’s just a function of my notions of creativity.)
And using such images would leave me with the nagging feeling that I’m complicit in ripping off artists.
I had contemplated using such images in blog posts, for shits and giggles, but instead I’ll use my primitive design skills to cobble something together. Or I’ll use a free image, without violating someone’s copyright. (Recently I’ve been doing a Google image search, clicking on “Tools”, then clicking on “Usage Rights” and selecting “Creative Commons licenses”, and including an attribution note at the bottom of the blog post.)
But if I want an illustration for something that matters, I’ll ask my guy Moh Soumeur to do it. Some of you might recall my “copy-and-paste monkey” illustration; Moh did that. He also did the three illustrations on the Adams Contracts home page. His work is original, and looks it. Unlike Dall-E, he’ll make whatever small tweaks I request. And his fees are entirely reasonable. (You can contact Moh at moh.soumeur@gmail.com.)
