When artificial intelligence goes wrong
March 20, 2024 2:32 PM Subscribe
Well isn't this a fine kettle of fish. Is the orchestra the audience? What's in her lap?lap? Is it the latest Birkin bag, or a camera case...Queensland Orchestra said they wanted to use artificial intelligence to be "innovative".
That page has in-line ads that play sound when they're in the browser window?
That's a greater threat than AI artwork, IMO.
posted by hippybear at 2:44 PM on March 20 [2 favorites]
That's a greater threat than AI artwork, IMO.
posted by hippybear at 2:44 PM on March 20 [2 favorites]
Anybody else unable to scroll the page? Maybe an artifact of my Adblock settings?
posted by Going To Maine at 2:45 PM on March 20 [23 favorites]
posted by Going To Maine at 2:45 PM on March 20 [23 favorites]
Going To Maine, yes, I couldn't scroll due to my adblock settings. So I opened the image in a new tab and read the article using reader view on Firefox.
posted by MiraK at 2:49 PM on March 20 [2 favorites]
posted by MiraK at 2:49 PM on March 20 [2 favorites]
More substantially, the most conceivable use for AI image generation seems to be replacing stock photos and footage, and that doesn’t seem to be reliably solved yet.
posted by Going To Maine at 2:49 PM on March 20
posted by Going To Maine at 2:49 PM on March 20
"When artificial intelligence goes wrong"
So, pretty much always, then.
posted by humbug at 2:50 PM on March 20 [10 favorites]
So, pretty much always, then.
posted by humbug at 2:50 PM on March 20 [10 favorites]
Right click, view image in new tab.
It's kind of cool that you can tell how wildly overrpresented Itzhak Perlman is in the statistical model's understanding of orchestra violin players, but somebody should call a doctor to put that poor woman's shoulder back in.
posted by mhoye at 2:50 PM on March 20 [12 favorites]
It's kind of cool that you can tell how wildly overrpresented Itzhak Perlman is in the statistical model's understanding of orchestra violin players, but somebody should call a doctor to put that poor woman's shoulder back in.
posted by mhoye at 2:50 PM on March 20 [12 favorites]
The A.I. image was sourced from Shutterstock, which listed it under the A.I. prompt “two people having a date at a indoor classical music romantic concert.”
Does that mean they paid Shutterstock for this image? Regardless of the provenance, that's... a choice.
Anybody else unable to scroll the page? Maybe an artifact of my Adblock settings?
It's definitely due to adblocking. You can unbreak the page by running the following in your browser's devtools:
Does that mean they paid Shutterstock for this image? Regardless of the provenance, that's... a choice.
Anybody else unable to scroll the page? Maybe an artifact of my Adblock settings?
It's definitely due to adblocking. You can unbreak the page by running the following in your browser's devtools:
$('body')[0].classList.remove('ads-loading')posted by BungaDunga at 2:56 PM on March 20 [3 favorites] There's a weird active javascript on the page which has these in-line ads that only play sound while they are visible on your page. Which I've never encountered before and is likely something new that is breaking things in browsers all over the place.
I don't run ad blockers, and I will say this is a new, innovative bit of online ad bullshit that I hope dies a fast death.
posted by hippybear at 3:00 PM on March 20 [3 favorites]
I don't run ad blockers, and I will say this is a new, innovative bit of online ad bullshit that I hope dies a fast death.
posted by hippybear at 3:00 PM on March 20 [3 favorites]
Here's the same story on the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2024/mar/06/queensland-symphony-orchestra-ai-facebook-ad-criticism
posted by freethefeet at 3:11 PM on March 20 [2 favorites]
posted by freethefeet at 3:11 PM on March 20 [2 favorites]
Is a second dress emerging Cthulhu-like from his zipper?
Generative AI is awful in many ways, but I think I wouldn't mind some genAI-derived fashion. That's a good look on that guy!
posted by trig at 3:22 PM on March 20 [3 favorites]
Generative AI is awful in many ways, but I think I wouldn't mind some genAI-derived fashion. That's a good look on that guy!
posted by trig at 3:22 PM on March 20 [3 favorites]
This is definitely a thing. What gets me is not that the AI got things bizarrely wrong (I've come to expect that, as well as expecting that they will get better. How much better is an open question), it's that someone in a position to make a decision look at... that and said "Yeah, let's go with it".
I'm hoping that they picked it because it was so freakishly weird, as a way to get clicks or some other form of attention (if so, well done). If they actually thought it was good, then we have a problem.
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 3:22 PM on March 20 [5 favorites]
I'm hoping that they picked it because it was so freakishly weird, as a way to get clicks or some other form of attention (if so, well done). If they actually thought it was good, then we have a problem.
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 3:22 PM on March 20 [5 favorites]
“At QSO, we encourage exploration, innovation, experimentation and the adoption of new technologies across all facets of the business. From time to time we will use new marketing tools and techniques as we are an orchestra for all Queenslanders.”
What, and I cannot say this strongly enough, the fuck.
posted by fedward at 3:43 PM on March 20 [7 favorites]
What, and I cannot say this strongly enough, the fuck.
posted by fedward at 3:43 PM on March 20 [7 favorites]
> Does that mean they paid Shutterstock for this image? Regardless of the provenance, that's... a choice.
Shutterstock (and Getty) offer generative AI tools, trained on their own licensed images.
posted by riotnrrd at 3:43 PM on March 20
Shutterstock (and Getty) offer generative AI tools, trained on their own licensed images.
posted by riotnrrd at 3:43 PM on March 20
They look like a pair of creepy dolls.
posted by The Ardship of Cambry at 3:43 PM on March 20
posted by The Ardship of Cambry at 3:43 PM on March 20
What, and I cannot say this strongly enough, the fuck.
Prolly generated the response to the controversy using ChatGPT...
posted by clawsoon at 3:51 PM on March 20 [1 favorite]
Prolly generated the response to the controversy using ChatGPT...
posted by clawsoon at 3:51 PM on March 20 [1 favorite]
Innovation being the same shit every asshole with VC brain is doing.
posted by Artw at 3:54 PM on March 20 [5 favorites]
posted by Artw at 3:54 PM on March 20 [5 favorites]
Shutterstock (and Getty) offer generative AI tools, trained on their own licensed images.
In this case it seems like it was for sale as a stock image from their library of AI generated images. Which means someone looked at this image and thought 1) this is acceptable for use and 2) it is worth paying anything for.
posted by BungaDunga at 4:06 PM on March 20 [4 favorites]
In this case it seems like it was for sale as a stock image from their library of AI generated images. Which means someone looked at this image and thought 1) this is acceptable for use and 2) it is worth paying anything for.
posted by BungaDunga at 4:06 PM on March 20 [4 favorites]
direct link to image: https://news.artnet.com/app/news-upload/2024/03/qso-ai-ad-1024x1024.jpeg
posted by glonous keming at 4:20 PM on March 20 [3 favorites]
posted by glonous keming at 4:20 PM on March 20 [3 favorites]
Whoever picked the image must have been looking on a phone not to see the terrible details. It may have cropped out the hand tangle and tulle sporran at the bottom, and the malformed violist on the left, and pipe organs in the balconies.
But I can't understand how they missed the overall greasy quality that's the hallmark of cheap-and-nasty genAI.
posted by WhackyparseThis at 4:47 PM on March 20 [2 favorites]
But I can't understand how they missed the overall greasy quality that's the hallmark of cheap-and-nasty genAI.
posted by WhackyparseThis at 4:47 PM on March 20 [2 favorites]
Eh, I like it. People are talking about it, if it was created by Shutterstock's tool that is trained on their licensed images then it is more ethically sourced than other AI options, and also it is weird as hell and I like weird stuff. Also with those pipe organ pipes all over the place, I imagine the whole building will collapse when they are played like at the end of The Recognitions.
posted by Literaryhero at 5:20 PM on March 20 [2 favorites]
posted by Literaryhero at 5:20 PM on March 20 [2 favorites]
From a publicity POV seems like a massive win for QSO. I bet the comms team are back-slapping each other right now. More public awareness than they would have had in years.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 5:42 PM on March 20 [2 favorites]
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 5:42 PM on March 20 [2 favorites]
This is an awful image and the capabilities of most ai generators are far better than this. The hands, the protesters in the gallery, the melted musicians in the foreground, and the dress spawning from his lap are all indicative of not only an older generation of ai image tools, but of someone who wasn’t paying attention to the artwork they were selecting.
posted by Revvy at 5:56 PM on March 20
posted by Revvy at 5:56 PM on March 20
Eh, I like it. People are talking about it, if it was created by Shutterstock's tool that is trained on their licensed images then it is more ethically sourced than other AI options, and also it is weird as hell and I like weird stuff.
If the players in the orchestra weren't so pissed off by it, they could've capitalized on it with a concert of AI-generated music.
posted by clawsoon at 6:15 PM on March 20 [1 favorite]
If the players in the orchestra weren't so pissed off by it, they could've capitalized on it with a concert of AI-generated music.
posted by clawsoon at 6:15 PM on March 20 [1 favorite]
I am not sure if it’s more likely that they did this on purpose for the controversy, or if some marketing director who just laid off the entire art department save for one intern who knows how to write prompts glanced at it and said “great, hit publish”
posted by Jon_Evil at 7:25 PM on March 20
posted by Jon_Evil at 7:25 PM on March 20
Yeah, it's kinda extra dystopia dessert topping to read a polemic against a crappy stable diffusion generator on a website so packed to the gills with admalware that it can't even scroll.
I Have No Overflow: Auto And I Must Scroll
posted by credulous at 7:52 PM on March 20 [2 favorites]
I Have No Overflow: Auto And I Must Scroll
posted by credulous at 7:52 PM on March 20 [2 favorites]
i’m so exhausted from seeing weird smooth and too shiny ai art with fucked up fingers and francis bacon painting faces, just make it stop!!! i hate it!
posted by dis_integration at 8:14 PM on March 20 [2 favorites]
posted by dis_integration at 8:14 PM on March 20 [2 favorites]
There are many terrible things that are otherwise harmless that I appreciate. Like those peep marshmallow things. This image is terrible, and it’s so terrible it impossible for me to get how a human was even involved. What is great is that the org appears to be simply rolling with all the attention, instead of pointing the finger at anyone.
posted by zenon at 9:02 PM on March 20
posted by zenon at 9:02 PM on March 20
I have to wonder if the subtext is donate to our orchestra so we can pay humans again.
posted by Soliloquy at 10:36 PM on March 20
posted by Soliloquy at 10:36 PM on March 20
I love the dress! It's like kudzu! Revisit this image in a few weeks and it will have overtaken all the orchestral level and crawled up to into the gallery, until eventually all of Queensland will just be lumpy shapes under acres of pink organza.
posted by taz at 12:40 AM on March 21 [4 favorites]
posted by taz at 12:40 AM on March 21 [4 favorites]
Ever see that one cat video where the cat turns on an iPad, opens a mouse-catching app all on its own, and then proceeds to bat at the mice onscreen?
Somewhere in the sequence of events that lead to me seeing this marketing image, there is someone who could be beneficially replaced with an iPad-wielding cat.
posted by Ryvar at 3:49 AM on March 21 [1 favorite]
Somewhere in the sequence of events that lead to me seeing this marketing image, there is someone who could be beneficially replaced with an iPad-wielding cat.
posted by Ryvar at 3:49 AM on March 21 [1 favorite]
I love the dress! It's like kudzu! Revisit this image in a few weeks and it will have overtaken all the orchestral level and crawled up to into the gallery
There’s probably a relatively simple way to do this with inpainting - if you had a grayscale mask of the “dress” part of this image, and a cropped source texture of the dress, you could slowly gaussian blur + brighten the mask and create a 10~20 second animation of exactly that.
You’d first have to get the mask, though… seems like somebody should have created an inverse of inpainting by now, but if it’s out there I’m not familiar with it. Alternately, certain image analysis AI can now reasonably infer depth/3D structure from an image, so you might be able to pull off a spatially-aware growth pattern by computing distance via sqrt(u^2 + v^2 + (maxdepth - currentdepth)^2) where u and v are the stepsize of a single pixel in the total inferred X and Z size of the structure in the image. In fact you could make *anything* grow to consume a picture of a structure or interior with that…or a city. Or a crowd of people.
Huh.
posted by Ryvar at 4:12 AM on March 21 [1 favorite]
There’s probably a relatively simple way to do this with inpainting - if you had a grayscale mask of the “dress” part of this image, and a cropped source texture of the dress, you could slowly gaussian blur + brighten the mask and create a 10~20 second animation of exactly that.
You’d first have to get the mask, though… seems like somebody should have created an inverse of inpainting by now, but if it’s out there I’m not familiar with it. Alternately, certain image analysis AI can now reasonably infer depth/3D structure from an image, so you might be able to pull off a spatially-aware growth pattern by computing distance via sqrt(u^2 + v^2 + (maxdepth - currentdepth)^2) where u and v are the stepsize of a single pixel in the total inferred X and Z size of the structure in the image. In fact you could make *anything* grow to consume a picture of a structure or interior with that…or a city. Or a crowd of people.
Huh.
posted by Ryvar at 4:12 AM on March 21 [1 favorite]
I asked a genAI to show me "a step-by-step tutorial on how to draw hands". Explains a lot.
posted by rory at 6:08 AM on March 21 [3 favorites]
posted by rory at 6:08 AM on March 21 [3 favorites]
rory: I asked a genAI to show me "a step-by-step tutorial on how to draw hands". Explains a lot.
What part of "AAN HARD OURND DOWV'S NAVWARE" didn't you understand?
posted by clawsoon at 2:58 PM on March 21 [4 favorites]
What part of "AAN HARD OURND DOWV'S NAVWARE" didn't you understand?
posted by clawsoon at 2:58 PM on March 21 [4 favorites]
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posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 2:34 PM on March 20 [2 favorites]