The Art of A.I.

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 Since we only have a decade or two before the singularity and subsequent domination of the human race by machines, I figured I may as well try to get into their “heads” from an artistic point of view. That, and completely waste time.

And thus, I bring you my experience of using AI to create artwork for an ad for my historical fiction novella, The Swordsman of Venice.
 

A little about the book, so you know what I was going for. Set in 1589, The Swordsman of Venice is the first spinoff of my Painted Souls series, which is set in the present and past. The Swordsman of Venice follows the main character from the 16th century, Angelo Mascari, a scraggly twenty-year-old who is a natural with a sword. Heavily laden with debt, Angelo reluctantly accepts a dubious proposition to seduce Isabella Scalfini, the wife of a nobleman, in order to steal a mysterious book from their bedroom. 

But Angelo and Isabella fall in love, leading to the incarceration of Isabella’s soul. With no options and a warrant on his head, Angelo is told there’s only one way to save her: flee to the New World. The story follows his  journey while he's pursued by vicious men who'll stop at nothing until they return him to Venice.

So, with Angelo and Isabella's travails in mind, I headed over to Bing AI.

Like all AI, Bing works with prompts. Simply type in your prompt and it will generate your request. For graphics, Bing AI returns four variations with every request.  

Here we go...

ROB: Create a painting set in Venice with a swordsman holding a rapier and a woman in a sky-blue dress.
 

BING: I’ll try to create that. 

Hmm. Interesting and creative, but decidedly not what I had in mind.

I realized I had to get way more specific with this computer brain.

ROB:  Create artwork in the style of Normal Rockwell about a 25-year-old handsome swordsman in 1589 Venice, Italy. The swordsman should hold a fencing rapier with a fancy hilt. He should have short, shaggy brown hair. He should be wearing a leather vest.  

BING: I'll try to create that.

Now we're talking. This was created in a minute. Incredible detail on the clothes but take a look at the hands. And for some reason Bing thinks people should hold swords by the blade. Unfortunately, this was a persistent issue I couldn't get around. I had some heated conversations with good ole Bing, who insisted it was doing the hands and swords correctly. 

I decided I wanted Isabella in the image anyway, so I tried again, now with even more specific detail.

ROB: Create a classical Renaissance style painting about a 20-year-old handsome man and a 20-year-old beautiful woman in Venice, Italy in 1589. The man should have shaggy, short dark-brown hair. He should be wearing a tattered leather brown vest. He should be holding a traditional fencing rapier. The woman should have auburn hair and be wearing a sky-blue dress. Put Venice in the background.  

BING: I'll try to create that.

Again, impressive, but still not what I was shooting for. And I didn't even want to argue with the machine about the hands and sword. Sure, Terminators can hold swords by the blade, but not us inferior sacks of flesh!

I also thought the characters looked too young. Trying again...

ROB:  Make the man 25-years-old. The woman should look at the man with love in her eyes. The man should gaze off into the distance mournfully. 

BING: I'll make those changes.

Wow. These are pretty good. Bing and I were getting closer, but I still wanted some changes. Where is the love? Poor computer.

ROB:  Give the man some facial hair. Make the woman noble. Make the man's vest more tattered with a little blood on it. Show his sword. They should be in love.

BING: I'll try to do that.

And a few dozen variations later, with Bing refusing to follow many of my requests... 

Exquisite detail in the clothing but they look possessed. And look at those hands! Can't Bing just search on how many fingers people have? And which direction they go, LOL.

Needing to actually write, I settled on this one with no hands and sadly no sword.

And here's the final ad, which needed to be cropped to fit the 300x 250 pixel specifications. Ah, the joys of being an author!

And just to plant a seed...

ROB:  Create artwork depicting a cute, all-powerful robot devouring Earth.

BING: Okay, I'll try to create that.