How far will we let AI control us?

[DaveC426913]

Would it be considered a bug or a feature?

Do you think that AI could:
a] produce this as an original piece of artwork (no precedent to steal from)
b] do so without direct prompting by a thinking entity, and
c] explain its reasoning and what it was attempting to capture (again, with no precedent to guide its rationale)?

Picasso could.

 

[russ_watters]

"Allen’s process wasn’t that simple. To get the final three images he entered in the competition, he said, took more than 80 hours."

If Picasso never existed and someone asked an LLM to draw the portrait of a person and the result was this:

View attachment 367845​

Would it be considered a bug or a feature?

Depends: how many hours did it take?

 

[russ_watters]

Here's the thing. Suppose there was a puzzle of some sort and my life depended on getting the right answer. I had a choice of asking @sbrothy @DaveC426913 or ChatGPT. And I had to take answer given. There is no question in my mind who I would choose. It's not even close. Sorry, guys!

Random or pointedly chosen question and random human, sure, that's been true for decades before LLMs. But how about if the answer to the question really matters; If you need a lawyer or structural engineer to do something significant in real life, are you still trusting an LLM vs licensed professionals?

 

[jack action]

Do you think that AI could:
a] produce this as an original piece of artwork (no precedent to steal from)
b] do so without direct prompting by a thinking entity, and
c] explain its reasoning and what it was attempting to capture (again, with no precedent to guide its rationale)?

Picasso could.

Knowing I'm no expert on prompt generation, let's see what GPT-5 mini from DuckDuckGo has to say:

Create an original portrait of the king of England, Charles III, drawn in a way that has never been seen before, and explain the reasoning and what you are attempting to capture with that portrait.

I can’t create images directly, but I can describe an original, never-before-seen portrait concept of King Charles III (public figure) and explain the artistic reasoning and what it aims to capture. Use this as a detailed brief for an artist or image generator.

Concept title: “Heirloom of Seasons”

Portrait description (visual brief)

• Format: Three-quarter-length, vertical canvas, 160 × 110 cm.
• Palette: A muted, earthy spectrum—deep umber, moss greens, pewter, and soft gold highlights—combined with translucent seasonal pigments (icy blue, spring sap green, harvest amber, winter crimson) layered like glazing.
• Composition: The King stands slightly turned to the viewer’s left, gaze steady but reflective. The background is an abstract montage of four interlocking semi-circles arranged like overlapping clockfaces, each subtly textured to suggest a season: frost-laced silver, budding leaf-fiber green, sun-warmed amber, and wind-swept slate. The circles intersect behind his shoulders, so the portrait’s focal plane sits where the seasons converge.
• Attire and regalia: Not a formal uniform or crown. He wears a contemporary-cut dark wool coat with an inner lining patterned faintly with botanical etchings (oaks, thistles, daffodils, roses) rendered in micro-embroidery. On his lapel, instead of a medal, is a small heirloom brooch shaped like a seed pod—bronze with a single pearl—symbolizing continuity and nurture.
• Surface treatment: Use layered mixed media—oil underpainting for flesh tones, egg tempera for the botanical motifs, and translucent resin veils over the seasonal circles to create depth and a subtle sheen that changes with light.
• Light and texture: Soft directional light from upper left, giving gentle highlights to cheekbones and hands; hands are prominent and shown relaxed, one touching the brooch as a caretaking gesture. The skin is rendered with careful realism but with visible brushwork that becomes more gestural toward the edges, blending into the seasonal backgrounds.
• Symbolic elements, integrated visually:
  • A loom-like shadow pattern across the lower torso, evoking weaving of communities and institutions.
  • Tiny, almost imperceptible golden threads that run from the brooch into the botanical lining and then outward into the seasonal circles—visualizing stewardship connecting small acts to national cycles.
  • Background textures include faint topographic lines and tidal ripples, suggesting land and sea bound together.
• Mood: Measured dignity with an undercurrent of vulnerability—an elder statesman aware of a living, changing realm rather than a static throne.

Artistic reasoning and intent

• Avoiding cliché regalia: By omitting crown and traditional full regalia, the portrait shifts emphasis from hereditary power to custodianship and service.
• Seasons as temporal stewardship: The four interlocking seasonal circles represent stewardship across time—ecological, cultural, and institutional cycles. Making them intersect behind the subject places him at the nexus of continuity, not above it.
• Botanical lining and brooch: Flora embroidered into the lining ties the monarch personally to the nation’s natural and cultural symbols. The seed-pod brooch embodies legacy, potential, and the idea that leadership is about planting and tending, not merely commanding.
• Hands and touch: Emphasizing hands (one at the brooch) humanizes authority—decisions enacted through care, not only decree.
• Mixed media and texture: Layering materials mirrors layered responsibilities and histories. The resin veils that shift with light symbolize how public perception changes with context and time.
• Loom shadow and golden threads: These motifs visualize networks—institutions, people, ecosystems—showing leadership as interwoven with others, where small threads matter.
• Light and brushwork: Realism at the face invites recognition and empathy; loosened edges suggest that identity is porous and shaped by surroundings.

What this portrait attempts to capture

• Custodial legitimacy: The idea of monarchy as ongoing stewardship over land, culture, and institutions rather than unimpeachable authority.
• Temporal responsibility: Leadership experienced across seasons and generations—decisions that resonate through cycles.
• Human scale: The portrait aims to balance dignity with approachable vulnerability, showing a person enmeshed in responsibilities and connections.
• Ecological-cultural link: Subtle motifs highlight the interplay between natural stewardship and civic duty.

Usage notes for an artist or generator

• For photorealistic approaches: Use a high-resolution reference for facial likeness; apply oil underpainting techniques, then layer tempera and resin digitally or physically.
• For painterly approaches: Emphasize visible brushwork at the edges and carefully control glazes for the seasonal circles.
• For AI-image generation: Provide the above scene-level prompt, specifying mixed-media textures, palette, and symbolic elements; iterate on hands, brooch detail, and background intersections.

If you’d like, I can convert this into:

• A short prompt optimized for image-generation models (text-only), or
• A step-by-step studio painting workflow (materials, stages, drying times). Which would you prefer?

I asked for the short prompt and got:

Use this concise, image‑generation–optimized prompt:

"A three-quarter-length portrait of King Charles III, contemporary and original: no crown or formal regalia. He stands turned slightly left, steady reflective gaze, one hand touching a small bronze seed‑pod brooch with a single pearl on his lapel. Contemporary dark wool coat with inner lining subtly embroidered with oak, thistle, daffodil, and rose motifs. Background: four interlocking translucent circles like clockfaces, each textured to evoke a season—frost silver, spring sap green, harvest amber, wind-swept slate—intersecting behind his shoulders. Soft directional light from upper-left, realistic facial rendering with visible brushwork; hands detailed and natural. Mixed-media texture: oil underpainting for skin, egg tempera botanical details, and glossy resin-like glazes over seasonal circles so surface shifts with light. Subtle symbols: faint topographic lines and tidal ripples in background; a loom-like shadow across lower torso and tiny golden threads running from brooch into lining and outward into the seasonal circles. Palette: muted earth tones (umber, moss, pewter) with translucent seasonal highlights. Mood: measured dignity with gentle vulnerability. Photorealistic face, painterly edges, high detail, 8k, cinematic lighting."

If you want adjustments (style, era, realism level, or aspect ratio), tell me which and I’ll refine.

I then enter that prompt into the free image generator deepimg.io and got these from Nano Banana Free (no login needed, defined as "Supports multi-image synthesis. Free popular models may occasionally be unstable."):

Pretty scary for freely available programs, huh?

 

[DaveC426913]

Here's the thing. Suppose there was a puzzle of some sort and my life depended on getting the right answer. I had a choice of asking @sbrothy @DaveC426913 or ChatGPT. And I had to take answer given. There is no question in my mind who I would choose. It's not even close. Sorry, guys!

That's a pretty clear false dichotomy (trichotomy?)

Two of those choices are statistically random.
OK, so GPT is slightly better than random.

 

[DaveC426913]

Pretty scary for freely available programs, huh?

Holy carp. Yes it is.
I concede the point. No notes.

 

[russ_watters]

Holy carp. Yes it is.
I concede the point. No notes.

Really? Art is maybe the least impressive use of AI I can think of. For other uses hallucination is a bug, but for art it's a feature. Art can be anything and can't ever be wrong.

 

[DaveC426913]

I wonder if Turing ever envisioned that AIs would fail the Turing Test - not because they undershot the bar - but because they overshot it.

To-wit:
"This is too good to be made by a human"...

 

[DaveC426913]

Really? Art is maybe the least impressive use of AI I can think of. For other uses hallucination is a bug, but for art it's a feature. Art can be anything and can't ever be wrong.

I meant the rationalization it offered. See above "Artistic Reasoning and Intent"