Some assorted thoughts from "X" about some assorted things that hopefully will come to his mind as he types!
I woke up at 4 AM this morning so thought I'd write a blog post to pass the time until I have to go to work. The problem is, I really don't have anything specific to write about! So instead of my usual topic oriented posts, today I'll just ramble on about a few things that pop into my head as I go.
PROMPT HUNT
Yesterday I somehow found my way to a site called Prompt Hunt. I didn't really check out the site in detail, but as you can imagine from the name, it's a place where AI artists can find prompts to use.
It has a search feature and I was curious to see if any of MY old prompts might be in their library? I used to use Jacek Yerka's name in almost all of my prompts back in the day, so I typed his name into the search engine and a ton of images came up on the page.
As I started to browse through them I began to see images that looked sort of 'familiar', so I clicked on them to see what the prompt was. Sure enough, all those familiar looking images were made with one of MY prompts!
I could hardly believe my eyes! It took me only about 1 or 2 minutes from first clicking on the site to find one of my prompts there! And if I found one that quickly, there's probably plenty more of my prompts in their library.
Sure, some of the prompts had been changed slightly by inserting different colours or adding new artist names, but there was no mistaking that it was my prompt from over a year ago when I used to publish them publicly at DDG.
Now I know many AI artists are more than happy to share their prompts with others, and if you're one of them you probably read the above paragraphs and said to yourself, "so what, who cares that you found your prompt there?".
I'll just say this about that: If you take your AI art seriously, and if you create it from 'pure prompts' that YOU write, you can't create 'original' artwork if you're sharing your prompts with the masses. Why? Because your prompt will be used in one form or another forever more, (if it's a great prompt), and the masses will make pictures from it that look and feel the same as your original did!
If you're creating from words alone, then the actual 'art' in your picture comes from your words, and when you share your words, you're giving away your 'style', which removes any of the individuality that your AI artwork could have had. How can you stand out in the crowd if every Tom, Dick and Harry can make an image the same as yours?
I dunno, maybe folks just don't care about this, but to me it matters a LOT. I recognized those images at Prompt Hunt even though they weren't made at DDG where I created the original at. They had my unique 'style' from the written prompt I had made.
Anyway, it just goes to show that my theory was correct when I wrote A PROMPT IS FOREVER 10 months ago! If you'd like to visit Prompt Hunt, you can do so HERE.
DDG's BOREDOM FACTOR
Maybe this also has something to do with the above topic...
This morning I thought I'd take a trip to DeepDreamGenerator and check out the images and give out a few likes to the ones that I found to be interesting and unique. I went through ALL the trending pages until I reached the end of them and couldn't continue any further.
To my surprise, by the time I got to the end, I had only liked 5 or 6 images, and one of them was a 'deep style'! WTH?!
I found myself quite bored while going through all the images, as they looked like other images that I've seen before. There wasn't much 'style' involved, and originality seemed to be seriously lacking in them. Even the stuff from my all time favorite artists at the site wasn't doing anything for me.
Why is this? Is it from the same prompts being used over and over again? Have the AI models at DDG become over saturated by training themselves off of other AI images? Have I just spent too much time at the site and everything is starting to look the same to me now? I'm really at a loss to define the issue(s) specifically.
All I know for certain is that the vast majority of the images I looked at there this morning were BORING to me, and to be honest, I really don't think it was the artist's fault. There were some great ideas from them, but the way DDG eXecuted those ideas seemed subpar to me. I wonder if other AI sites are going through the same thing? I'll have to start paying more attention if/when I visit them.
But this might be yet another reason that DDG is having issues with attracting new users, (and keeping them), and why so many old favorites have moved on from the site. It might be time for DDG to add some new, interesting, and eXciting models to use at the site.
OOP! TIME TO GET READY FOR WORK!
Wow, that went by quickly! I thought I'd be able to ramble on about a few more other things, but it looks like this offering will only have 2 topics in it!
ThanX for reading along~
"X"
July 19th, 2024
UPDATE!
DEEP DREAM GENERATOR'S NUMBERS HIT ALL TIME LOW!
I had to add an UPDATE to this page, as I'm a little ASTONISHED at what I just witnessed. This morning I visited DDG and saw numbers there I could hardly believe.
On the front page (trending) the bottom image had only 41 likes. On the second page the bottom image had only 18 likes. I've been at DDG for about 2 years in total now, and I have NEVER seen these numbers as low as I did today.
I suppose this could be just some cosmic coincidence that was caused because a huge swath of users couldn't create images in the past 24 hours for some reason or another. Maybe it happened to all of them at the same time? A more likely eXplanation is that users are leaving the site in vast quantities.
I've been watching the numbers decline at DDG for months now, especially since the Inspiration Points system arrived, so this latest low is likely just another result from it all, but HOLY!!! These numbers are just SAD.
I'm sure the DDG gods are well aware of them, they DO tend to keep a close eye on things. Hopefully they'll figure out a way to reverse this trend, and SOON, or there won't be anyone left!
YIKES!
"X"
July 23rd, 2024