Artificial Intelligence is expanding human creativity
A CQUniversity Lecturer in Digital Media is delving into the stunning and strange world of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Art' with a plan to transform digital media courses at CQU.
The talented Brendan Murphy has been experimenting with DALL·E 2 which is an AI system that can create realistic images and art from text descriptions.
Mr Murphy said the system works by analysing how humans have described images and taps into its memory to produce artwork.
"DALL·E 2 is like an art Uber driver who will navigate you through a very complex space to get to the image you want. The key part of the system is the roadmap that it uses' built from AI analysis of a plethora of paired images and text descriptions'" Mr Murphy explained.
"I think the system initially set out to capture subjects' styles and genres' but because human written captions or descriptions accompany every image it analysed' the system captured moods and emotions as well. These elements are harder to tap into' but more powerful in terms of art.
"If you are patient enough to follow a winding path through DALL·E 2 space' you can create images that feel original and that you feel connected to."
In addition to introducing DALL·E 2 into the curriculum by using the system to create images for use in course material' Mr Murphy also has two creative projects on the boil.
"One project involves going through my back catalogue of photography and finding images to modify slightly using DALL·E 2' and another is to feed song lyrics into the caption box and massage the results to come up with evocative images that match the mood of the source material'" he said.
"While I am focused on the creative potential of these systems and I am enjoying making art with them' these are disruptive technologies. They can produce completely convincing photographs and even produce decent packaging and poster designs."
Mr Murphy said this technology has been developing slowly over the last decade' and although it may seem fun and cute' he believes it is going to transform digital media.
"The higher-level skills we offer in our degree are going to be more valuable than ever'" Mr Murphy said.
"The students are becoming more aware of AI tools and have started to use them in their projects."
In the next couple of weeks' Mr Murphy will be visiting a few Rockhampton high schools to give art students a chance to use DALL·E 2 to explore how emotion is conveyed in art.
"I hope by introducing these students to DALL·E 2 and AI Art they will follow a creative career in digital media."
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