Have you heard of DALL.E?

Let me start this off by explaining what DALL.E is. Here is what their website says:

"DALL·E is an AI system developed by OpenAI that can create original, realistic images and art from a short text description."

"It can make realistic and context-aware edits, including inserting, removing, or retouching specific sections of an image from a natural language description. It can also take an image and make novel and creative variations of it inspired by the original."

As an example, the image above used as the title image was created by an AI based on a simple description from me. I input "A robot artist painting on a canvas", and the image above (and 3 other variations) are generated. From there I can choose to save or download these images and to use them whichever way I would like, including commercial purposes.

I thought this was brilliant as soon as I heard about it. Currently there is a wait list to join the beta, so I signed up as soon as I'd heard about it a month or two ago, and have only gained access now.

I've created lot's of images since yesterday when I officially made an account, namely for fun and just to test out all the whims of the system. There are so many options and you can create a whole array of images, from abstract whimsy, to beautiful oil paintings, to realistic photo type images.

The following images were all created by the DALL.E AI.

Isn't it amazing? This bouquet of flowers done in a pointillism does not exist as a painting in the real world. This is created by what I assume is the AI scanning through many images on the internet, and then creating its own interpretation of what my words meant. Yet no one would be the wiser if I used this as an image to print on a canvas. It looks so real.

And what about this digital art piece of a shark flying through space with an exploding nebula behind him. I swear I've seen actual posters like this somewhere. I'm also a little tempted to get this printed on a shirt.

The girl below does not exist in real life. This isn't a photo. This and 3 other completely different realistic portraits popped up when I typed in "portrait of a young woman with blonde hair green eyes and black shirt."

Looking for a 'famous painting' that describes exactly what you're writing about? Have no fear, DALL.E is here. For this image I simply typed in my description of what I wanted, down to the details of her looking over a field and writing in a notebook, and then added "oil painting" to the description. And Voila, this looks like an actual oil painting in my opinion. I'm sure many others would agree - even some art connoisseurs might try to guess who painted this and in what time period.

Lastly, this is not a real skyline of any existing city on this earth. I'm looking forward to creating more images like this one of "real" places that don't exist in real life.

So what's so cool about this in the first place, one might ask.

They're just images. You need some high quality images? Just go on unsplash. After all that has been a go to for some time.

Just think about this for a second though. Through writing a few words down, an AI program can now create a completely new image in seconds - One that did not previously exist. Ever. That image is now yours. As if you painted it yourself. You are free to print your painting on a mug or a shirt and sell it.

That's like having a program that can write your next chapter or blog post for you, just by giving it a short synopsis. "Hey DALL.E - write me a blog post about the best places to visit in Paris." Boom. Half the content creator jobs in the world would be outsourced to DALL.E if that was the case. Who knows, maybe that will be DALL.E 2.0.

So considering that this program is wicked cool, and that I created probably 35 separate images of completely random things before I decided to call it a night, it got me thinking.

If AI can create images, paintings, photos, and art like this, then what does that mean when it comes to who really "owns" the rights to the image. Furthermore, doesn't it take away from the value of art itself?

The website does say that whatever you create using your words belongs to you on every level, but something still doesn't add up. I can't, or rather shouldn't generate these images, print them out, and then post them up in a gallery claiming that they are my actual creations. I did nothing. I mean - I wrote one simple sentence and then clicked a button. But the art piece that was created as a result, let's say the oil painting above of the woman at the window sill -that would have taken me a long time to paint in reality. Even though I own the rights to the image, that doesn't mean that I have any skill or talent in that capacity, so I shouldn't take credit or reap the benefits of it as a result. I wouldn't, but who's to say someone else won't?

Furthermore, there are talented artists out there in the real world. If I can generate an image that parallels their own creation, doesn't that undercut real artists and the value of their creations. It's easy to say that we would try our best to support artists, and would opt to buy a real painting over one that is generated by a computer, but let's be real. How many knock offs of everything and anything do people purchase in general to save a buck. At the end of the day, unless I'm a collector, I don't care about the genuine factor when it comes to what I hang on my wall. I just want it to look good.

To wrap this up I just had to go back and create one more image. I opted for ridiculous and went with, "Crocodile climbing a pyramid while holding a bicycle".

You're welcome.

What are your thoughts about DALL.E?