There are different tiers of AI-generated imagery. The least convincing, but easiest to access,
is stuff like DALLE Mini, which you can click the link to in this video’s description right now,
type something in, and get a result within a matter of minutes… provided
the site isn’t overloaded, that is! But the problem with DALLE Mini is that
it’s not the best in quality: it’s limited! Here, for instance, it’s trying to create a back garden.
You can sort of see it, but it isn’t exactly going to trick anybody into thinking it’s real.
The tier above this is stuff like Midjourney, which when asked to generate the same sort
of garden, does THIS. Which I think you’ll agree, is much better. Stuff like Midjourney
is harder to get access to, though. I paid for a month’s subscription, joined their discord,
and found dozens of rooms, full of people creating content. It’s really eerie,
actually. Seeing all these random pictures being drawn up, layer by layer, many of which I wouldn’t
have dreamt up in a million years. When you ask for a picture, it puts
you in the queue, and then gradually generates 4 low-resolution examples. You can pick any of these
to upscale into a full image, or you can select one of these for it to generate 4 new results
from, meaning that over time you can refine it to become more like you want it to look like. Because
some of the results you get can be a bit rubbish. But, with enough refining and cultivating,
you can eventually get a decent looking result, like these.
But there’s a tier of AI image generation that’s even above this one. Just to recap:
At the bottom is DALL-E MINI, Then you get stuff like MIDJOURNEY…
And then, currently at the top, is stuff like DALLE 2.
DALLE 2 is easily the best of the 3. Were it not for just how specific my requests were, I might
have thought that it was just grabbing existing images that were already on the internet. If you
thought that AI would hit some sort of barrier, or would fall short of becoming photo-realistic,
I think DALLE 2 shows that this isn’t going to happen. AI is continuing to improve,
and to approach photorealism at a rapid pace. The problem with DALLE 2 is that it’s the hardest
AI tool to get access to. And, once you do get access, you’ve got to be really careful about
what you create for it- you’re not allowed to use it to generate life-like faces, or anything
else that could cause… ‘problems’ should it be published and claimed to be real. Stuff like
Boris Johnson in a tub of beans, for instance. Because with DALL-E 2, it’s getting to that stage
where it’s hard to tell whether or not it’s AI generated or real any more. God knows what
we’re going to do when DALLE 3 comes along! So I gave all 3 AI tools the same requests,
and compared the results generated by the 3 ‘tiers’ of AI image generation.
I’ll admit it: I’m interested in photorealism. In fact, I don’t even want photorealism, because
that implies that it’s something fake that’s only trying to mimic reality. What I want are PHOTOS!
I want AI to replicate real life, because I feel that’s the holy grail of this sort of technology,
AND because it’s the most difficult to get ‘right’. Stylised imagery can hide behind the
shield that is ‘artistic license’. But realism? That’s held to the high standard of reality-
which those of us who sometimes switch off from the internet are quite familiar with.
BUT… we’ll start with cartoons. Because this was also interesting.
I wanted it to draw a cartoon horse, jumping over a rock,
in a field, with brown mountains in the distance. And honestly? DALL-E Mini did a good job here!
It’s clearly a stylised horse, jumping over a rock, with brown mountains in the distance.
But I found ‘cartoon style’ is something that Midjourney really struggles with.
This was my first attempt. I rejigged the wording and stuff,
and my second attempt was better, though I found a very SUS watermark in the generation process,
indicating that it slaps a load of images from google together to form the basis of the image,
and then swirls it about with AI until it becomes something it can pass off as being unique.
Interesting. But in my opinion, a very poor image when compared with the other models.
So you’ve seen the others, now for DALL-E 2. What an incredible depiction of a cartoon horse!
What a stylised, and uniform result! So yeah, I might not be interested in cartoony results, but I
can still greatly appreciate how GOOD this one is. And how bad this one is.
I’ll admit- my requests were based around DALLE-2, because it’s the one with the most requirements.
For example: my initial request for a man in a purple jumpsuit singing into a microphone, set
in a sunny place with green hills, (Certainly not the Teletubbies) ran into the ‘face restriction’
that’s imposed on DALLE-2. So it had to be redone in digital art style to get around this,
hence these stylised results. So it’s not wholly fair on the other AI methods to expect it to work
well with inputs that are designed for DALL-E 2, because, really, to get the best from any of
these tools you should test different inputs until you get one that works best with which ever one
you’re using. But then, that kind of defeats the purpose of trying to compare them all,
doesn’t it. It’s tough. But as you can see, DALL-E 2 once again did a great job here.
Midjourney had its own take on it, which may not have had the same consistency
nor unique style of DALL-E 2’s, but I still find it appealing in its own way.
I picked a few of these to upscale and… yeah. While the faces don’t look great, I think if
you saw these, you’d consider them… ‘art’. Even little old DALL-E Mini did a pretty
good job with this. Looks like a guy’s been green screened into a cartoon world. These
pictures’ lack of definition makes them pale in comparison with the other two methods.
Can you tell what this is? No, probably not, were it not for the description written along the top.
But that’s DALL-E Mini for you. It gets the ‘bright studio’ bit right, but struggles with
the stacks of chairs and with the rocking horse that’s supposed to be in the middle.
Midjourney had a much more depressing take on this, repeatedly making the studio appear
dark and dimly lit. Definitely not somewhere I’d want to work.
And DALL-E 2, surprise, surprise, generated almost-perfect, photorealistic pictures
of this scene. I especially love the shadows and reflections of the rocking horse.
Some beautiful 3D rendering going on right there- and with no 3D rendering going on!
I continued to refine the description in Midjourney, in the hope that I could get
from it. But it just kept spouting cursed image after cursed image at me. The sort of stuff you’d
expect from the Ring or something like that. So I felt it was best not to antagonise it further, and
just to move on while I was ahead. DALL-E 2 wins. Was there anything it DIDN’T win at?
THIS, is Elysium. 10 years ago, CS:GO came out and this was the first map that I made for it.
Set in a Martian crater, this large base remains one of my favourite levels that I’ve ever made,
and Valve was WRONG not to feature it in the game’s first operation.
So I wanted to see what AI could do with it. Raytracing,
lens flare… all the good modern graphical effects I can think of!
This, is what DALL-E Mini did with it. And this is DALL-E 2. DALL-E Mini… DALL-E, 2.
2 is definitely more refined, but I still like DALL-E Mini’s variety and style.
Midjourney was a bit lost with the same description. It’s still beautiful in its own way,
but painfully abstract for what should literally be a castle in a Martian crater.
So I re-wrote the prompt and extracted some wonderfully creative images out of DALL-E Mini.
And I mean REALLY creative, combining castles with rocks,
and with lovely looking skies overhead. It gave me bush I didn’t ask for, but nobody’s perfect.
And Midjourney didn’t disappoint either. The images I got from it weren’t as diverse
nor as imaginative as Mini’s had been, but within a few generations of results I had
some appealing-looking landscapes, complete with a castle on a hill.
Just before this video was ready to be released, I received THESE DALL-E 2 images,
using the same prompts as I had given the other programs. I wouldn’t say these look particularly
realistic, or detailed, but the architecture is impressive- like something you’d expect to
see in a sci-fi movie. Really, what a great resource this is to generate new ideas from.
So Dall-E 2 is probably still the best. I was curious to see what AI would do with a
text prompt. AI doesn’t typically like words, you see. So asking for text that says ‘3kliksphilip’
completely threw DALL-E Mini off, which focused more on the rest of the prompt instead, and which
generated text that looked like utter jargon. Midjourney -at first glance- managed it,
but trying to read it, it actually says ‘3KLIKSPIPHILIPK’. Not bad, though.
But DALL-E 2 did something… eerie. It didn’t get the text ‘3kliksphilip’. But it did do text,
and made it look beautiful! Like a 3D render of some sort. As though it had really spent
some time making it look good. It’s just that the text itself was utter nonsense.
36PKL. What is this, a numberplate simulator? 3KPK… DRE PLIP?
So some of the results were utter nonsense… and one of them was really, really sinister.
THIS, is my room. My bedroom. My living room. My study, my home. I’m showing you this because it
seems like AI is literally incapable of imitating it, thanks to this mattress that’s up against the
wall! Just like you, it can’t fathom that this is a thing! So while AI is trying to
trick us that its fake images are real, my real room’s tricking it into thinking it’s fake.
Even DALL-E 2 didn’t know what to do with this. Even with a prompt that
includes ‘there is a mattress leaning up against the side of the wall. A mattress is
leaning against the wall on the left. The mattress is leaning up against the wall.’
…it still results in a disappointingly ‘normal’ looking room. THIS, is the best it could manage.
A limp, pathetic-looking mattress laid unevenly on the ground. Valve pls fix.
So there you go- future ‘prove you are human’ captchas will ask you to
draw a mattress up against the wall. This will be the real challenge for DALL-E 3!
As expected, poor little DALL-E Mini didn’t dare touch this challenge, keeping quiet in
the corner and churning out image after image of the computer bit of the prompt instead.
Midjourney- POOR midjourney, became the thing I tortured to TRY and get what I wanted.
I tried simplifying the prompt down to being just a room with a mattress. Then just a room,
but with a wall made of mattress! It put up a hell of a fight, but eventually cracked,
making a room coated in mattress material and all sorts of weird abstract-looking things,
clearly sick of my nonsense and wanting me to pick on another image generation program instead.
I wanted AI to go to the kitchen and make me a kitchen. This is Dall-e Mini’s interpretation of
a kitchen, with a dark red plastic floor and a tan coloured ceiling. There’s supposed to
be a dark wooden table in the middle, but much like the rocking horse from earlier,
the AI liked to ignore that prompt. Same with midjourney, too, which insisted
on these uninspired symmetrical-looking angles of an empty-looking kitchen.
Even DALL-E 2 ignored some of my requests, but I totally forgive it because these kitchens look
so damn sheek. And unlike the other ones, happen to obey the laws of perspective.
So this is DALL-E 2 doing the same, but in the style of an old polaroid camera.
I think this old style improves midjourney’s results, which as we know by now,
specialises in doing stuff that looks cursed. When I look at what the image contains,
DALL-E Mini does fairly well, but having been spoiled by the clarity of the other two AI tools,
I am now sick of Mini’s smudgy, artificial-looking appearance,
which puts an upper limit on how good it can possibly get.
LONDON! Dall-e Mini looks like London, but boy does it look like an AI-generated image of London.
Midjourney wasn’t too hot on this either, insisting on replacing Big
Ben with a swirl. Or is that the London Eye it’s putting in there? I dunno.
DALL-E 2 still struggles a bit with the London Eye,
but it’s leaps and bounds ahead of the others, and at a glance, passes as a photo of London.
But here’s the thing: a number of these pictures seem to be from a similar viewpoint.
All of these happen to get the placement of the London Eye relative to Big Ben and that other
tower thingy there rather accurate. So what’s happening here? Is DALL-E 2 itself specifically
choosing this specific angle and getting the placement of these things right? Or,
is this all because these images are borrowing heavily from one existing image instead?
Now for all you American people, here is New York, DALL-E Mini style.
It’s interesting seeing how different AI focuses on different bits of the prompts,
because Midjourney likes to emphasise the clouds.
…while DALL-E 2 just focuses on generally looking awesome. Here’s a bonus alternative image…
…and here it is, if done in the Unreal engine. Those of you who know your game engines will
appreciate this example, even if the latest Unreal Engine has advanced beyond this stage now!
DOG SNIFFING LAMPPOST. One of the most natural things in the world. But again, it’s something
that AI struggles with. DALL-E Mini didn’t seem to know what a lamppost is! And it certainly
didn’t have the complexity required to have the dog SNIFF it convincingly in the same shot.
Midjourney’s interpretations were, frankly, horrifying. Like, seriously… I have no words
for the monstrosities it created. And I don’t know why I thought that upscaling one of these results
would help, because it certainly didn’t. DALL-E 2, though? Brilliant.
This, is a perfect image. It’s artistic, too. This one looks a bit off. And these ones
seem to get the proportions all wrong. The dog’s head in this one is horribly deformed.
And this… isn’t a dog sniffing a lamp post! I’m not sure what an ice cube doing here!
Image sites should be afraid. VERY afraid. Imagine a tool that doesn’t just strip a
company’s logo from an image, but can even change the image itself into something so different
that it can no longer be traced back to its origins anymore! Using Midjourney,
I briefly tried combining these two images together, and the first results were very
cartoony, while the second was… unflattering. But maybe DALL-E 2 will be better. From these
few examples I was given, it looks like the technology is already getting pretty effective.
It wasn’t long ago that I saw AI upscaled images as being magic- and now I realise how far things
have progressed, because with this technology, I am now deeply critical of even the slightest
mistake in upscaling! Because, while DALL-E 2’s thumbnail-sized previews can be highly convincing,
the illusion tends to break down once it upscales it to a higher resolution.
Having just been to Morocco, I wanted AI’s latest and greatest to conjure up some Berber-style
castles. And they looked predictably awesome and place-like. But once upscaled using DALL-E 2’s
same awesome technology, the limitations became far more apparent. The trees end up looking
overly furry, and the image as a whole, starts looking artificially drawn, or fabricated. So
while DALL-E 2 holds up under scrutiny better than the other methods do, the illusion still
breaks down once the image is detailed enough. Even those wonderful kitchen shots started
to fail, with the view out of the window revealing itself to be a load of rubbish.
So it seems as though AI can trick us at a glance, but still struggles to get the finer aspects
of photorealistic shots right. But the fact we have to pick the image apart so much before we
find these failings is testament to how much this technology has advanced. As far as I’m concerned,
it has already overcome the limitations I thought would forever limit these tools.
It’s reaching the end game now, and unless you’re told that you’re viewing an AI image, a good one
COULD trick you. And that’s already enough to open many exciting (and unnerving) situations.
It is scary just how quickly this field is advancing. There are other tools claiming to be
better even than DALL-E 2 is- with Google’s Imagen possibly leading the pack. For now, at least! And
these are just the tools that we know of. But good luck getting your hands on them! It seems like,
the better the tools, the more difficult it is to gain access to them. And maybe that’s for the
best! We don’t yet know the full implications of this sort of technology, and companies are
understandably cautious about it. But like I’ve said previously, I think that Pandora’s box has
already been opened, and it’s only a matter of time before fabricated images begin popping up
under the guise of being real. We need to be ready for that, or at least, aware. Thanks for watching.