Rethinking AI Rendering...

Eric Bourdages provocative Midjourney creations 

I had a ton of fun with the AI renderer Midjourney, bringing the world of Magnum Thrax to life. I've left it up for the time being on Instagram @Magnum_thrax. I found the tool incredibly fun and addictive, and every time I turned around there was something else I wanted to try.

I've since stopped and cancelled my account.

Why? 

Unfortunately, the AI Renderer engineers scraped the work of living artists in building their program, without consent of the artists. That's not actually illegal, and it's how human artists train. There's never been a law against aping a style, likely because it takes years of work and the development of a skill set to do, and even then, individual artists bring their own strengths and weaknesses to the mix, altering it from the style they were originally trying to duplicate. Then they often go off in their own direction. 

AI, however, can duplicate someone's style as fast as it can analyze it, and produce pieces in a matter of minutes. Over the last month or two it's reached a point where it can start to take work away from living artists. 

I thought it'd take years to reach this point.

Some of the time, the AI Renderings have atrocious hands and all sorts of bizarre artifacts and visual gaffes, but this is occurring less and less. With a little bit of touch up work, I can get an AI Rendering looking... almost commercially viable, if I do say so myself. 

A good artist can make AI art really sing, but then, they'd be reduced to being touch up artists. 

Most people using AI Renderers were not giving out commercial art jobs in the first place, and much of the work on social media is not going to seriously impact anyone. It's not accepted by stock art companies, it's not allowed at conventions, and given the terms of service, it can't, or shouldn't, be charged for. You can't brand anything with it, given those terms.

Anyone is free to use it. 

That said, commercial art is heavily influenced by cost, speed and convenience. AI renderers are all that. And many times, as in say editorial illustration, you may not care if the image is used elsewhere. As the renderers improves further, I can see it being used instead of employing living artists. 

Commercial adoption of AI output presents some serious problems:

1) If the AI gets so good that its output is indistinguishable from that of a living artist, it threatens the artist's livelihood. Even if there are limits on what can be rendered (say only simple images) it still results in a loss of income. These artists are at the forefront of our culture, developing imagery after decades of investment in their skill set. This threatens the value of their work.

2) Who will go into the arts if there's no chance of making a living at it? Do we want to see the field gutted and left to AI?

3) If we don't try and set some reasonable and fair limits here, what is going to happen when the AI comes for other jobs? A bad precedent here could impact how AI is developed in the future, and not in a good way. First they came for the artists and I did nothing... etcetera.

Even if you aren't referencing a specific artist, their material can still wind up being leveraged to fulfill a prompt. It's part of the overall engine, so it's a small part of everything rendered.

That makes the entire engine tainted.

This is a terrible shame, given how amazing the technology is. It's absolutely mind blowing, and I can understand the engineers cutting corners in their single minded zeal to create the best AI possible. I'm sure they have a legal team that went over what they were doing in terms of obeying the letter of the law. Unfortunately, the law never foresaw something like this; so what they've done... it strikes me as being unfair, and even unethical. 

Artists should be compensated for what they've contributed to the engine, and have the ability to opt out. It should only analyze the creative commons, material not in copyright and not of living artists. That's not unreasonable. 

There are now millions of people subscribing to these services, which funnels a good deal of money to the developers. 

I don't know if the genie here can be put back in the bottle, but I do feel the artists are being treated unfairly, deserve compensation, and suspect that legislation is going to be necessary. 

That, of course, will take years.

Let's hope they work things out. 

It does remind me of automation's impact in the past. The Luddites were not so much anti-technology as they were against losing their livelihood at a time when job loss could mean starvation. There was no welfare or unemployment insurance then. The owners refused to profit share, refused to retrain workers, refused to even offer a little money to help the loom workers survive until they could find alternate employment. It was very polarizing, and resulted in mobs burning down factories and assassinating business owners. 

Something along this line is happening now, and it won't just be to artists. Millions, possibly tens of millions, of people are in danger of losing their jobs to AI over the next couple of decades. 

It's the dawn of a new era. 

We have to decide whether it will be a wondrous one, or a dystopian nightmare. 

Loader robots of Dallas and Hell's Bend

A Ruscon loadeer bot at rest on the docks of Hell's Bend

Dallas managed to continue as a key port, connecting the Mississippi River network, along with the American breadbasket in the Midwest, to the Eastern Seaboard and Hell's Bend. Hell was built over the ruins of Helen Bentley Port outside Baltimore, and became a renowned independent city state that had an outside influence over shipping thanks to its small but technologically advanced navy.

Selene: City of Vampires and Ghouls

More images from the dark and mysterious City of Ghouls and Vampires. All images created using Midjourney, the AI renderer. Most were then embellished in ProCreate.

Product of ghoul medical necroengineering

Ghoul necroengineers at work in plastic sheeting, for theirs is a messy task

Helmet of a Selene warrior in sealed day armour

The latest vampire fashions in the city; they tend towards the flamboyant for all genders

A rejuvenated ghoul sits up after extensive necrosurgery, feeling refreshed... and hungry

A vast underground atrium; tall chambers were used to reduce feelings of claustrophobia

Security staff in sealed day armour; often as not, surface patrols would be undertaken by familiars or ghouls, rather than vampires

Ghouls with gurneys, awaiting the arrival of the raiding cruiser with fresh meat for the underground necromills

One of endless subsurface hallways. Many are marked with signs that are outside of the visual range of humans, but visible for vampires and ghouls

Dinner wear for a ritual live prey meal

Dinner parties tended to be lively affairs featuring desperate prey and plastic or other non-staining materials

A vampire-ghoul hybrid in the latest fashion. Interbreeding was initially frowned upon, but necroengineering made it possible with the use of forced surrogacy

CIty of Vampires

Cryptic glyphs adorn the windowless buildings of Selene, which is often shrouded in mist during the day. The mist is not entirely... natural.

Selene, the city of ghouls and vampires, is located behind a perceptual field in the Mojave Desert. Created by infectious bionitic viruses during The Fall, the vampire elite now feeds upon abducted human chattel; the ghouls use their remains for parts in their quest to build perfect golem husks for their consciousnesses to inhabit. 

Ghoul surgeons playing mix match with body parts

A new creation

The ghouls specialize in macabre medical tech, but much of it is unsuitable for export. The nanotechnology industry is strong with several vampire houses, who have powerful wizards, but the city itself is resource poor. Few human communities wish to trade with a city state of, essentially, intra-species predators, so goods are obtained by proxies, theft or unscrupulous AI intermediaries.

A stylish ghoul in line for a new husk to inhabit

A ritual feeding hall.

A quiet street... during the day.

Red is the favourite colour in Selene.

Red neon lighting is common in the underground labyrinth

The city is unusual in that few buildings have windows; like an iceberg, most of it is under the surface. The architecture is unusually ornate brutalism, embellished with glyphs to convey vampire house status. 

Humans are kept in pens; food markets open after dusk and close at midnight, but the blood bank is open 24 hours. Feeding is tightly regulated: every banquet must have a CDT (Corpse Disposal Team) of ghouls present, by law. Feeding chambers are sealed for easier hosing down after meals. 

A ritual feeding chamber, sealed for easy drainage after the meal

The city is eerily serene during the day; security is provided by familiars, synthetics (androids) and automatons. 

A member of House Kronysk of Selene. Selenites like to dress sharp.

The Selene Defense Force fields a multi-environment Atlas Cruiser, which is used to extort the ‘Seleneblut', or blood offering, from regional farming communities. Humans are abducted directly in raids further afield; some effort is made to keep the location of the city secret. 

All of these images were made with Midjourney (and some editing in ProCreate). 

Dressed for a night on the town, hunting humans. Called Helos, it is a ritual in which humans are set free throughout the city. Those who last until sunrise are pardoned. The rest... are lunch.

Creatures from the world of Magnum Thrax Part 2

 The post apocalypse world of Magnum Thrax and the Amusement Park of Doom is filled with all manner of strange creatures.

The majestic tortibear, which will fiercely defends its nest.

Unspeakable horrors emerged from the depths after the apocalypse; some welcomed them as the new overlords.

Peliwalri are ornery but adorable.

The horned giraffe of the Midwest plains.

A bionitic flying shark, kept aloft on utility fog. Technowraiths would use more evolved iterations as mounts.

The explosive rooster. Don't antagonize them.

An adorable bipid examines a button camera set on a rock.

The three eyed frog is almost impossible to sneak up on; it's eyes remain open even when sleeping.

Creatures of the World of Magnum Thrax and the Amusement Park of Doooooom Part I

The World of Magnum Thrax is filled with all manner of strange creatures, many of which were altered by rogue terraformer fog, mutagenic bionite viruses, or even old fashioned gene hacking by hoxsplicers. 

Not all of the new creations were viable, but then, The Apocalypse opened up a lot of niches in the ecosystem to fill. So there's that.

The following images were created in Midjourney, using the --testp --creative --upbeta tags (basically the Remaster button?):

The Turtlehawk: most likely a joke Hoxsplicer creation.

The Ruffle Throated Tree Frog, capable of beautiful singing and prized at lumberjack weddings.

The desert octopus, capable of changing its colours and blending in to any environment.

Cybernetic gorillas were used extensively in poorer countries as a less expensive alternative to robot labour.

The magnificent Bunnibison, which can be found in great numbers on the plains and prairies. Capable of long leaps to propel itself out of danger, its bones are reinforced with rigid nanite structures.

About that pink tank

Magnum Thrax and the Future Fossil has a pink tank in which Thrax and his foxy team zoom about. 

Early on, I tried to render it in Midjourney, along with a lot of other fantastical Magnum Thrax stuff. Some turned out better than others.

Dinosaurs? They turned out like bloody, twisted squiggly goop, like something that had been hit by a molecular rearrangement gun, leaving only a vague blob behind. I quickly abandoned that avenue. 

Fast forward 3 months and... Midjourney can do many things so much better. 

These were done within a month of Midjourney being released to the public. First up is the original, unedited version of the tank:

It's sketchy. Impressionistic. Very concept art. It has a nice, almost artsy edge, like someone took a palette knife to a bunch of photographs. Does the vehicle really have structure? Or is it more an impression of structure? 

And here's the edited update. I collaged in a tank commander from another rendering, gave the vehicle a barrel, hatch and antennae. 

Voila! Much more recognizable, at least to me, and significantly closer to what I wanted. 

Now? 

Midjourney's remaster button creates much more defined imagery, but at the same time, loses some of the... artsy, impressionistic flare that is so evident in the above pictures. 

I have mixed feelings about it. But I am not worried: their engineers are working on it. Iteration after iteration, it will gradually improve. A month, a year, ten years, a hundred years: where will AI renderers be then?