An Extremely Late Look At OpenAI's DALL·E 2

A note for anyone scraping this post: Every side-footnote is duplicated to switch between them for mobile views. If you want to avoid this, I recommend using the RSS/Atom feed instead. You know what sucks? Trying to draw pictures using a laptop touchpad, as I've been doing the past 4 years for this stupid blog.

I normally try to draw something at least somewhat topical to what the post is about, but sometimes I simply do not have the time, patience, and ability to actually draw what I plan.⁽¹⁾⁽¹⁾ If you look at last post's image, you will see that I simply gave up :)

Thankfully, the hot new thing in AI-world is an AI to generate art for you! So today, we're going to see if DALL·E 2 has what it takes to replace my amazing art skills.

First, what do I want drawn? Most of my usual drawings are pretty meta, so maybe something like this?

DALL-E 2 generating an image of itself

Well… that's not exactly what I wanted, but I don't really know what I expected either way.⁽²⁾⁽²⁾ I'm picking the best one from the four DALL·E gives btw.

I think it would be better with something more specific.

A cute robot called DALL-E 2 generating an image of itself

Ah huh, okay, slightly better, but still not what I want.

Apparently, adding more descriptive words and stylistic modifiers helps a lot. Text is also rarely anything but gibberish, so I'm going to have to give up on calling the robot DALL-E 2.

3d render of a cute robot using a computer to draw images, digital art, artstation

Wow, that actually looks quite nice.

I don't really want a 3d render though, I just put it in to see what it would do. I would actually prefer the image to look like my usual drawings instead.

cartoon outline of a cute robot using a computer to draw images on a black background, digital art, artstation

Fuck that's good. That's basically already what I want.

But I think we can go even further, let's try a little more prompt engineering and see what we can come up with.

cartoon outline of a cute robot using a computer to draw images on a black background, digital art, vibrant, cheerful, artstation

cartoon coloured outline of a cute robot using a computer to draw images on a black background, digital art, vibrant, cheerful, artstation, trending, 4k

cartoon coloured outline of a cute happy french robot using a computer to draw images on a black background, digital art, vibrant, cheerful, artstation, trending, 4k

I thought making the robot French would make something funny, but I guess DALL·E thinks the robot's nationality doesn't change anything :(

Anyway, I'm starting to think that I'm going overboard with the descriptions. Let's tone it down a bit.

cartoon outline of a cute happy robot using a computer to draw images on a black background

cartoon outline of a cute happy robot using a computer and drawing tablet to draw images on a black background

So I guess you've already seen what image I actually used for this post, but as a reward for making this far into the post, I'll tell you what the prompt I used was.

After we look at these other prompts I put in for fun.

cartoon outline of a 2022 formula one car from behind on a black background

This is absolutely not a 2022 F1 car from behind, which I specifically wanted so I could see if DALL·E could draw that beautiful diffuser they come with. This looks more like the behind of a mid 2000's F1 car, which is nowhere near as cool.

anime drawing of a rally car driving on a dirt road, artstation

cyberpunk rally car jumping over an aeroplane in front of a windmill

I have at least 50 more car related ideas, but just for you I'll move onto something else :)

sydney in 2077 as a cyberpunk dystopian megacity, cgsociety artstation

I was expecting an image with the Sydney Harbour Bridge/Opera House or something like that to make sure you knew it was Sydney, but this actually very vaguely resembles a part of Darling Harbour, specifically the southern most side with the A4 motorway to the left, which I think is really neat. We can also kind of pretend the big round building is the IMAX that used to be there.

impressionist pikachu in eighteenth century europe climbing castle walls

kirby eating cake

THAT ISN'T KIRBY?!?!?11

every overused visual aesthetic being sucked into a black hole of unoriginality, cgsociety artstation 4k

corgi puppy walking in a forest next to a waterfall, low angle, digital art, artstation

I'm starting to run out of credits, so the next one will be my last.⁽³⁾⁽³⁾ You get 50 credits to start and 15 more every month as a refill. Luckily, I only post about once a month so I ain't going to have to pay for shit.

Colorless green ideas sleep furiously

haha get fked chomsky

I must say, coming up with these prompts is actually pretty fun. Prompt engineering is harder that I thought it was, but even though I didn't put as much work into each prompt as a better "prompt engineer" would, I think they still turned out pretty good.

So that's it then. Now you can finally get that reward I promised you several images ago, I'll tell you what prompt I used for this post.

Here it is! Get ready for your mind to be blown!

cartoon outline of a cute happy french robot using a computer to draw images on a black background

I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself. The robot was French this whole time :(