Friday, November 17, 2023

"Magical Little Adventures” in AI Captions

Mixbook, where I design and print my calendars, now offers AI-generated captions, with the warning that they "might not be completely accurate."
Yes. This is true.
But some are accurate, and I even like some of them, like "Little Adventures Finding the Magic of the World"; "Intricate characters awaiting adventure".

Some are boringly accurate: Cozy nights. Snow play day. Unleashing the Imagination of Toyland.
Some seem philosophical:
"Tech and Time in these little details"
; "Floating Dreams", and, oooh-- "Garden Doll's Time Machine".

But, wait! Penny Doll Chronicles? Nowhere do I mention Penny Cooper's name in the photos. What is going on here?

Others are hilarious. On a photo of the girlettes' Solstice Parade:
"Unruly yet elegant additions to every home".
THAT is true: Do not let these dolls into your home without taking into account that they are unruly.

I (almost) admire the AI's valiant efforts to label this photo collage of "Judith & Her Maid Abra with the Head of Holofernes" and my laptop. "Shared moments in one space"? Well, that's true... 
Also, "From candlelight chats to screen time"; "Furry friends and tech advances"; "Sisters Bonding in the Dark" (spooky much?)



A few more, from other calendar pages:
"Their Journey from Plastic to Life" (!)
"Toy Tales, Hairy Dreams"
"Minding Our Manners Through Darker Days"
On the moth funeral: "Moths and dolls, a cozy duo"


You can hit "regenerate" too, and get more and more of these odd phrases--they remind me of cumbersome, quirky translations of Japanese into English.
"Crocheted Comfort on the Shore"--could the AI be aiming for Kafka on the Shore? (There is no crochet.)

While this is fun, I do sort of worry about anything that encourages us humans to think even LESS for ourselves. Could it be worse than our own efforts?
There's a small library of books that say, Why yes, it could.

Still, I might use some of the bizarre captions...

(I will post the final calendar layout next week, I think, if people want to order one.)

2 comments:

  1. [Email] From MICHAEL LEDDY:
    For some reason I'm unable to leave a comment, but I just want to say that "unruly yet elegant" is one for the ages. Hilarious!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks, MICHAEL: I love that too--"unruly yet elegant"!
    I hope this problem commenting here doesn't persist...

    ReplyDelete