Monday, May 30, 2022

Google Imagen

 
One of the purposes of this blog is to highlight the ways in which AI is transforming the practice of digital imaging.  While many apps are innovative and imaginative, some of are so amazing they seem more properly to belong to the realm of science fiction.  Chief among these is Google's new experimental Imagen as described in a recently released research paper.  

The premise behind Imagen is simple: One need only compose a single line of descriptive text and Imagen will create an image illustrating it with astounding fidelity.  Sample images can be viewed at the above link.

Imagen has not yet been commercially released and judging from the number of moral reservations already voiced by various commentators there is some question whether it ever will be.  As the history of technical innovation repeatedly shows, whenever a new medium of communication is released there are invariably those who will immediately seek to put it to the most perverse, if not actually criminal, uses possible.  And with Imagen such negative possibilities are limitless.  The most obvious is pornography, but there are no doubt others that will quickly occur to minds more twisted than my own.  In light of that, it will be interesting to see what the future holds for the app, if anything.

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