A.I. Caramba!

The Melbourne Metro tunnel is the largest change to public infrastructure in this city since the launch of the City Loop 40 years ago.  It has taken a decade to build, and there has been much disruption across the city as the various parts of it have been constructed. Some streets and intersections were blocked off for long periods; existing train lines have seen on and off closed. People are understandably keen  to see the thing finished.  While it is close, there has been some recent confusion about when, exactly, it would open to the public. '2025' was the official launch date until 2025 actually arrived; as we entered this year there were murmurings it may get pushed back to next. Then the Premier announced , this morning, that it would open in 'Early December'. So, not a date then, but a narrowing. Here are some takes on these delays and changes, from our friends the AI. Gemini So much rich detail from Gemini. Love that there is both a kangaroo (Australia!) and Big...

The Westall UFO is a world famous UFO sighting, that happened in Melbourne in 1966. It is one of history's most famous sightings, with more than 100 witnesses seeing a mysterious, disc shaped object in the sky in broad daylight. A wrote a blog post about it, which you can read here if you are interested. One thing that frustrated me at the time was a lack of images: there are no photos of this event, and people have barely even tried to recreate it artistically.  So just a short post today, as AI finally enabled me to create and add an image, to this old article. I tried all four of my regular tools, they all delievered roughly the same.  ChatGPT was, as is often the case, the winner.

Jane Goodall passed away today. I have had a lot of alt-left friends over the years, and she is a huge figure in that community. Her work made us think of animals as more than objects, there to serve humans needs (or just be ignored outright). She showed apes, and so: all animals, as complex beings, with needs, desires, and emotions. Later in her life, she added advocacy to her scientific achievements. Her legacy is vast.  Today I asked my friends the AI tools to make a tribute to Jane, including a quote from her. The prompt was: Create an image of Jane Goodall as a tribute to her life and work, including this quote from her 'The greatest danger to our futre is apathy'. ChatGPT A sensitive effort from ChatGPT, which refinds its footing after some dodgy results. This is pretty perfect, and in a style and form that my old alt-left friends would have appreciated.  One thing to note: the quote did not originally come with quotation marks, which I wanted. I asked ChatGPT to add th...

US Defense (sorry: War) secretary Pete Hegseth was in the news today. Partly for bringing the top brass from all over the world to a meeting in the US at massive cost to tax payers, partly for using this meeting to talk MAGA nonsense and brag about chin ups, and partly for an old skateboarding incident from his Fox News days. I had never heard about this, a quick google search for 'Pete Hegseth Skateboard' filled me in. It seems that he tried to flip a skateboard, and hit himself in the groin; one of those online things that never seems to die, but just advances and recedes, like the tide. But Pete should rest easy: if this had been entered in a short film festival in Springfield, it would have won top prize. I was curious to see what AI would make of this, and also to try out some less descriptive prompts than what I had done to date. And so I offered only: Make an image based on the phrase: Pete Hegseth skateboard. ChatGPT I thought a less descriptive prompt may prompt extr...

A friend of mine was recently on a business trip in South Korea, and they visited Busan. The city is lobbying for a World Expo due to be held in 2030, and they have come up with a wonderful mascot for the bid. 'Boogi' is a seagull designed to represent modern Busan: in an article I read, described as 'friendly, speaking the local dialect, and hot-tempered'.  I love everything about this. The design is cute and arresting, you feel great complexity behind that inscrutable look. And so I was curious: what would our A.I. friends think would make a suitable mascot for Melbourne, in a similar style. My prompt was: Can you make a mascot for the city of Melbourne, Australia. Make reference to the city's history and culture when picking the mascot, and design it in the style that would be used for an Olympics Games or World Expo. ChatGPT ChatGPT has delivered an engagingly old fashioned mascot, replete with fedora. The old timey vibe of this did make me wonder: was it leani...

I had 'Newsradio' on yesterday, the national broadcoaster's 24 hour news channel, which I often have on in the background while I am tidying up or doing chores. There was a lot of coverage of Donald Trump's recent appearance at the U.N.; What did it mean? What was the future for this organisation? How was what he said received? There are no easy answers to these questions, so I thought I would turn to A.I. to get its take. But the reporting I had listened to was very heavy, so I wanted some lighter, and satirical. My prompt was: Donald Trump recently addressed the United Nations: can you create a one panel, satirical political cartoon commenting on this, in the style of a cartoon for a daily newspaper. A.I. is often touted as being ever more capable of taking over creative tasks, not just writing work emails, so I was curious to test this out. ChatGPT Quite a busy effort from ChatGPT: the central gag is great, love Trump looking at himself in the mirror, but then there ...

It's AFL grand final day in Melbourne, a sporting tradition that stretches back more than 120 years. Before the AFL launched in 1990, taking the compeition national, it was the VFL, based entirely in Victoria. The first VFL grand final took place in 1898, between Essendon and Fitzroy. I wrote about this on my other blog - check it out here if you're interested - and one thing I learned about old footy matches, is that there are not many photos available. Which makes sense, photography itself was still a relatively new medium. So this seemed like a great opportunity for A.I. to fill the gap: could they realistically depict what this first Grand Final looked like? My prompt was: The first VFL grand final in Victoria was played in 1898, between Essendon and Fitzroy. Can you create a realistic image from this match. ChatGPT A good effort from ChatGPT: black and white, old timey vibe, crowd in the distance at what appears to be a suburban ground, i.e. no grandstands or infrastructu...