1/ When I was in 7th grade, my school got its first computer, courtesy of a newly-hired teacher named Mrs. Richmond. She brought in her personal Apple II+, and was given a tiny room, almost a closet, in which to set it up. One day I was walking by, and the door was ajar.
2/ I caught a glimpse of a computer monitor, and on it was a color image of a locomotive train. I was fascinated. I distinctly remember thinking, naively, that all someone had to do was type in “a picture of a train,” and the computer would put that image on the screen.
3/ I quickly learned, however, that that was not the case. Creating images back then meant lots of planning and coding. I tried to learn, but I would hit a ceiling.
4/ That glimpse of the train image, though, was the beginning of my fascination with computer-generated images; a fascination that would ultimately bring me to the door of Pixar where I spent the next 25 years.
5/ But you know what? I never forgot that train image, and I never forgot how naive I was to think you could just type in a description to create an image. 43 years later, I started to hear rumblings about how AI was being used to create images from words.
6/ Yesterday, lying in bed recovering from COVID, I stumbled upon DALL-E. Before long I was sucked down a rabbit hole, voraciously eating up image after image. What I was seeing seemed like magic. It couldn’t possibly be real. And then I remembered my train.
7/ It hit me: the day had come. What my 11-year-old mind had dreamt up was now reality. And a reality beyond anything I ever could have imagined back then. I reached out to OpenAI and was lucky to be granted a spot to test DALL-E.
8/ I have spent my first day exploring, writing prompts and creating images. And it feels like a miracle. A couple times today—and I’m not shitting you—when the results of my prompt appeared my breath was taken away and tears welled in my eyes. It’s that magical.
9/ The sad thing is, this tech will likely soon become ubiquitous, and generations of kids will grow up only knowing that such things exist. But for me, right now, it’s magic. I feel like a time traveler from the future has shared this with me, and I feel so very lucky.
10/ I can’t wait to see what I can create with it, how it can make my other work more creative and productive, and what new things I can create that I never would have imagined before today. Sometimes magic is real. #DALL·E
PS/ I’m fully aware of the wide-ranging and important debates concerning this tech, from the dangerous ease of creating propaganda to very real fears that it could replace some human artists. But for the moment, anyway, I’m going to enjoy the magic.
“An elephant covered in colorful Holi powder stands in a 1960s suburban kitchen, night” #Dalle2
“Giant sand sculpture of happiness, dramatic sunset, photograph” #Dalle2
“White orchid in a tall ceramic vase, bedroom corner, dramatic side morning light, long shadows” #Dalle2
“1930s robot, lit only by the Nixie tubes on his head and body” #Dalle2
“Still life with beautiful flowers, meat, and colorful translucent polyhedral forms. Dramatic lighting. Photo in the style of Christian Rex Van Minnen.”
“1870 wet plate photo of all four teletubbies on a grassy hill” #Dalle2
This is really, really cool.
My friend @Rodney_Ascher (who directed ‘Room 237’) made this short using stills generated by #dalle2
“Muppets in A Clockwork Orange” #DALLE
“A hummingbird hovers mid-air, backlit by the rising sun, nature photography, bokeh”
“Bigfoot buying a Slurpee inside a 7-11, night, photo” #DALLE
A taxidermied taxidermist #DALLE
Holi Portraits #1 #DALLE
Holi Portraits #2 #DALLE
Holi Portraits #3 #DALLE
Holi Portraits #4 #DALLE
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