Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been gaining popularity worldwide because of its ability to perform tasks like humans. The technology is used for personalized shopping, fraud prevention, art, content creation, voice assistants, autonomous vehicles, and many other areas. Predictions by Statista show that profits from AI software will increase to $126 billion worldwide.
Lately, artists have realized they can create images using artificial intelligence with little effort. The Loab AI woman is one of the amazing images that artificial intelligence has managed to produce. The Loab images have demonstrated that AI could be the future of the art industry.
In this article, we will discuss the Loab and who created it. Also, we will look at what critics of the Loab have to say about the use of the images to show artistic excellence. Further, we shall discuss the things we can learn about artificial intelligence courtesy of the Loab AI woman. At the end of this piece, we shall discuss Crungus, another AI-generated art.
Let’s dive in.
Who or what is Loab?
Loab is a fictional AI woman with red cheeks and dark, hollow eyes discovered by a Swedish-based artist and musician known as Supercomposite.
Supercomposite’s discovery of the Loab AI woman was by accident rather than design. He was experimenting with a text-to-image by putting negative prompt weights to see the image it could generate.
Supercomposite prompted the text-to-image model to produce an opposite image of Marlon Brando, an influential American actor. He wrote Brando:: -1 to instruct the AI software to generate an opposite image of the actor.
The generator gave him an image of the skyline logo with the words “DIGITA PNTICS”. He used the results to perform another negative prompt to see what he would obtain. The outcome was a scary image of a woman Supercomposite named Loab.
He tried to input the prompt more than once to see if the text-to-image model would change the results, but Loab kept appearing.
Supercomposite realized that the text-to-image model he used repeatedly produced an accurate image of the Loab AI woman.
He used the latent space to see whether the Loab would appear on each image he prompted the AI software to produce.
Amazingly, all results had the Loab at the centre of the image with the same disturbing features.
Fascinated by the events, Supercomposite posted images of Loab on his Twitter page for his followers. The image went viral for being the first AI-generated cryptid. Through his work, the world saw the wonders AI can do in art.
Loab skeptics
Despite Loab gaining popularity in the art world, not all people believe it should attract a lot of praise.
A critic of the images argues that they depict stigmatization of disability. Loab images show a woman with hollow eyes that seem blind.
Getting scared by an image of a blind woman illustrates a society without remorse for the disabled. Such a move may make disabled persons hate themselves since they will think that society does not care about them.
Another critic argues that Loab images depict a society that mistreats the weak among it. Thinking that the image of a physically challenged woman with a skin condition is a horror image is unacceptable.
It shows a society that will treat the weak for having conditions out of their control. The Loab AI woman seems helpless and needs better treatment than being associated with horror.
Features of AI Evident from Loab
Supercomposite’s discovery of the Loab using a text-to-image model has revealed multiple things about AI. Let’s look at some things we can learn from Loab images about AI.
Learning
Loab images help us understand and appreciate the concept of machine learning used in artificial intelligence. Machine learning is a kind of AI that causes software applications to foresee results better without a person being programmed for such tasks. The text-to-image model that Supercomposite used to generate Loab produced an image that never existed in the past.
Supercomposite had no idea of the way the opposite of a logo could look. Hence, the model had to employ the concept of machine learning to come up with the Loab image.
We learn that AI can be used to generate outcomes that will help us to predict the future. For example, AI software at a shop can use information about past consumer behaviours to predict future customer needs. Doing so will help the management of the business to devise ways to fit the future needs of their target clients.
AI Reasoning
AI reasoning is invaluable as it helps software applications generate the desired results. A software application uses deductive or inductive reasoning to decide the outcome to give. For example, a security robot will reason whether to allow a visitor into a building based on how it has treated such persons in the past.
Loab allows us to understand the concept of AI reasoning since the software application produces images based on reasoning. Supercomposite commanded the text-to-image model to give the opposite of a logo and produced the image of a woman.
AI reasoning is evident because the software application does not give an image of another logo as the opposite. It means the machine understands what a logo is and what is the farthest image from it.
Besides, the principle of AI reason is illustrated by the ability of the software application to place Loab AI woman in every picture. When Supercomposite tries to change the latent space while including the negative prompt of the skyline logo, Loab appears on every image. Thus, the machine recognizes Loab as the focus by putting it in all images.
Problem-Solving
From Loab, we learn that artificial intelligence can generate solutions to problems beyond human comprehension. The problem-solving concept in AI is based on a machine affording to apply and manipulate available information to produce a desired result.
For example, feeding data into a computer an excel sheet to generate a graph depicts problem-solving. The machine will use the available formulas and the information you feed to produce the desired graph.
Loab images are evidence of AI’s ability to solve problems because they seem to be a closer solution to Supercomposite’s challenge.
In the text-to-image model, he applied and manipulated the negative prompts to display its version of the opposite of a logo. The Loab image solves the problem for Supercomposite as he can now edit the solution to obtain perfect art.
Processing Language
We learn AI’s ability to process language from Loab images. Supercomposite put the negative prompt “DIGITA PNTICS Skyline Logo”, and the text-to-image model produced Loab consistently. It shows us that machines can master commands and produce the same results in the future. For instance, a phone application can be prompted to flag off any messages with specific words as spam.
Who or what is Crungus?
The discovery of Loab by Supercomposite inspired other artists to consider AI-generated art. One such artist is Guy Kelly, a Twitch streamer and voice actor who discovered Crungus. He worked experimented on AI-generated images about five months after Supercomposite discovered Loab.
Crungus is a digital cryptid with horrifying horns, fingers, eye-sockets, and a mouth. Guy Kelly used the Craiyon image generator that produced images of the monstrous being. However, he never explained the text he input in the text-to-image model to produce such a horrible thing.
The concept of processing language is evident in Crungus since Craiyon produced the same image repeatedly. He posted the images of Crungus on his tweeter account, which attracted a lot of views from art lovers. Some believe the images illustrate what AI predicts about creatures that humans do not know exist.
Final Remarks
Artificial intelligence (AI) transforms the art world in ways no one could have envisioned. Loab images discovered by Supercomposite are a perfect example of how AI has eased the job of artists.
The Loab AI woman is an image depicting a woman with horrifying features that remain the same even if the latent space is changed. Supercomposite discovered Loab after trying to input negative prompts on a text-to-image model.
The discovery of the Loab allows us to learn AI capabilities like machine learning, reasoning, language processing, and problem-solving.
Firstly, Loab depicts machine learning because the model was not programmed to produce the image of a woman.
Secondly, it allows us to appreciate the AI reasoning since software application recognizes the opposite of a logo cannot be a similar image.
Thirdly, it indicates machines can solve challenges by manipulating and applying existing information. Lastly, the consistency in how the model displays Loab images proves that machines can process and memorize the language.
The lessons learned from the discovery of the Loab will help us trust AI for various tasks in the future. For instance, in the future, we may entrust AI to drive fully autonomous vehicles since we know it can reason and solve problems.
The art industry should embrace AI to improve the quality of their pieces and reduce the amount of work for artists. Artists may make much money by incorporating AI-generated art into their careers.
English bloke in Bangkok. First used GPT-3 in 2020 and has generated millions of words with it since. Not really much of an achievement but at least it demonstrates a smidgen of authority. Studies natural language processing, Python and Thai in his spare time.
