Artist's Statement: You got your AI in my MS Paint!
February 8, 2021 9:27 PM   Subscribe

paint.wtf 🎨 In which you, l'artiste, are prompted with a caption, for a scene which you are to sketch—only to have your genius validated or denied by an AI critic who's been programmed to rank your masterpiece among the world's best entries. New prompts generated frequently. I recently placed fifth among a field of forty illustrators with my stark rendition of A Shark That Refuses To Eat Fish (2021).
posted by not_on_display (46 comments total) 31 users marked this as a favorite
 


My shark that will not eat fish got marked NSFW.

I don’t know why. It’s a bit suggestive, but only in the sense that it doesn’t look that much like a shark so is instead only shark like.
posted by nat at 11:15 PM on February 8, 2021 [4 favorites]


This is giving me a lot of joy tonight. Drug dealer is actually a cat is doing well, but Whale on the Titanic was more fun.
posted by Vervain at 11:28 PM on February 8, 2021 [7 favorites]


I guess there's no accounting for taste
posted by evidenceofabsence at 11:43 PM on February 8, 2021 [8 favorites]


I can't believe it's not more highly-ranked butter
posted by taquito sunrise at 11:57 PM on February 8, 2021 [5 favorites]


ok I love my horse eating a pizza no matter what the robot says though
posted by taquito sunrise at 12:04 AM on February 9, 2021 [10 favorites]


What if it said that its 101 year old could do that?
posted by thelonius at 4:13 AM on February 9, 2021


I am proud and a little puzzled to be first-ranked among butters. How bad were the rest of those butters?
posted by ourobouros at 4:33 AM on February 9, 2021 [8 favorites]


My giant fabric doll is currently ranked #7 but I think #8 (doll floating in outer space) is wittier.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 4:38 AM on February 9, 2021 [1 favorite]


This is so fucking funny and I've recommended it to my illustration students for practice with bizarre briefs.

My "Person who eats their own dog" is currently ranks 5th, but tbh the current 6th ranker should be top of all time
posted by Balthamos at 4:52 AM on February 9, 2021 [3 favorites]


ourobouros: "I am proud and a little puzzled to be first-ranked among butters. How bad were the rest of those butters?"

Mine was like 57th of the butters, and I drew a churn. There was no butter.
posted by chavenet at 5:10 AM on February 9, 2021 [5 favorites]


Yes, interesting how it ranks. For the prompt "living in a van down by the river", a sparse blue line with a vehicle shape ranks ~2400, but a blue word RIVER and a black word VAN with a stick figure is in the 40s.
posted by Ten Cold Hot Dogs at 5:32 AM on February 9, 2021


not_on_display, you clearly had the best shark that refuses to eat fish. The body language! The pained expression!
posted by taz at 5:42 AM on February 9, 2021 [2 favorites]


Thanks for posting this, so fun!
posted by Bella Donna at 5:48 AM on February 9, 2021


I feel like my utter lack of artistic talent SHOULD be a bigger impediment to this, but I got #1 on, Dinosaur Parked On Elephant and #2 on .Drug Dealer Is Actually A Cat. Behind something with actual artistic talent.

I was solidly middle of the pack in my Shark Refuses To Eat Fish , and marked potentially NSFW? but that was before I realized that you can use color. Apparently, using color helps.
posted by Xiphias Gladius at 5:55 AM on February 9, 2021 [3 favorites]


Damn I'm only #3 on Dinosaur Parked on Elephant. Time to take some art lessons I guess.
posted by elgilito at 6:03 AM on February 9, 2021 [4 favorites]


Honestly, elgilito, I think you're taking the wrong message from this. Look at the two above you -- you need ANTI-art-lessons in order to score higher.
posted by Xiphias Gladius at 6:09 AM on February 9, 2021 [1 favorite]


The plot thickens; revisiting "person who eats their own dog", a new entry coming in ranked one place above mine incorporates elements taken from mine and the entry below mine... People are working out how to game the AI! Presumably it "likes" things it already has seen (as is the nature of all brains, A and non-A) so if you draw stuff incorporating elements of entries that have ranked highly you'll be more likely to rank high...

The kinds of thinking people will do to get to the top of a leader board... We need to arbitrarily competitive-ize the revolution if we really want things to happen.
posted by Balthamos at 6:46 AM on February 9, 2021 [6 favorites]


I think I broke it with my "spotted glider chomping on an ant" :(
posted by ArgentCorvid at 7:14 AM on February 9, 2021


The kinds of thinking people will do to get to the top of a leader board.

...which is a nicely concrete and utterly vapid illustration of the Dream-cheats-at-Minecraft thread from a little while ago:

This "contest" means nothing. It provides nothing except brief bemusement. And yet people will go to ever-greater lengths to "win".
posted by aramaic at 7:26 AM on February 9, 2021 [2 favorites]


This "contest" means nothing. It provides nothing except brief bemusement. And yet people will go to ever-greater lengths to "win".

Wouldn't it be healthier to just admit that you're jealous of my globally top-ranking and objectively perfect person [devouring] their own dog?
posted by wreckingball at 8:08 AM on February 9, 2021 [13 favorites]


I sure am, wreckingball- it's a masterpiece!

Also you're 1st out of 69, nice 8)
posted by Balthamos at 9:14 AM on February 9, 2021 [1 favorite]


Pretty excited to be 3 out of 335 in butter!
posted by jessamyn at 10:34 AM on February 9, 2021 [3 favorites]


I scored in the lower half on butter.
posted by not_on_display at 10:59 AM on February 9, 2021


My elephant in shark cage Is deliberately minimalist.

When I try to info something weird to “win” here, it isn’t about being on the leaderboard. It’s about trying to understand what the AI is looking for; it isn’t an actual elephant in a shark cage. It’s some set of shaped and colors. And I want to prod the AI to figure out *what* set of shapes/colors it is after. In my case, mostly to find out how minimalist I can be. It isn’t about going to lengths to win.
posted by nat at 11:29 AM on February 9, 2021 [1 favorite]


Oh, and this one is my favorite among the sharks who will not eat fish.
posted by nat at 11:31 AM on February 9, 2021 [1 favorite]


Please take a moment and vibe with my AI-sanctioned masterpiece, Bannana Tree in the middle of Nowhere!

Super fun! Thanks, eponysterical thanks, not_on_display!
posted by Rube R. Nekker at 11:45 AM on February 9, 2021 [1 favorite]


I think we can all agree that my top-ranked banana tree in the middle of nowhere is clearly the best.
posted by wilberforce at 1:01 PM on February 9, 2021 [1 favorite]


oh wow folks, bananas do not grow on palm trees.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 1:36 PM on February 9, 2021 [2 favorites]


but if the AI thinks we think the AI thinks we think that bananas grow on palm trees then maybe we win
posted by Think_Long at 2:35 PM on February 9, 2021 [8 favorites]


You dastardly system gamers, knocking my banana tree down from 4th to 9th!

oh wow folks, bananas do not grow on palm trees.

Well, obviously they do now.
posted by mollweide at 3:47 PM on February 9, 2021 [1 favorite]


Third Place, for a Giant Bell Pepper, goes to....
posted by not_on_display at 5:43 PM on February 9, 2021 [3 favorites]


I am pleasantly surprised with my bald man at a museum, despite not making the AI judge's top ten.
posted by Corduroy at 9:00 PM on February 9, 2021 [5 favorites]


For at least this brief moment, I have drawn the best (of four) balloon that's twice as big as it should be.
posted by cortex at 8:10 AM on February 10, 2021 [3 favorites]


Does the AI come up with these prompts? They are so good. I doubt a human could think of "balloon that's twice as big as it should be."
posted by Corduroy at 8:52 AM on February 10, 2021 [2 favorites]


I love the prompt, "of course, they do love to do that"
posted by taz at 9:53 AM on February 10, 2021 [1 favorite]


(I'm not sure what current #13 is loving to do?)
posted by taz at 9:56 AM on February 10, 2021


I'm not sure what most of those were loving to do, so I added this, and came in the lower percentiles... But I didn't have time to pander, like the #1 entry.
posted by not_on_display at 11:44 AM on February 10, 2021 [1 favorite]


I truly love my fat cat and would like to pet him no matter how he ranks
posted by RobinofFrocksley at 1:31 PM on February 10, 2021 [5 favorites]


That is a perfect fat cat.
posted by taz at 2:24 PM on February 10, 2021 [1 favorite]


I have to give credit for my fat cat to Ramona Quimby. She showed me how to draw a cat. I like mine with three whiskers on each side.

"She drew another Q and admired it a
moment before she added two little pointed
ears, and then she added two whiskers on
each side so that her Q looked the way the cat
looked when crouched on a rug in front of
the fireplace."


-Beverly Cleary, Ramona the Pest
posted by RobinofFrocksley at 3:04 PM on February 10, 2021 [7 favorites]


I have lost both my mind and the competition. (The winner.)
posted by evidenceofabsence at 4:47 PM on February 10, 2021 [4 favorites]


Now, they should take all the entries, get an AI to label them, and we can all play AI-assisted telephone pictionary.
posted by nat at 9:33 AM on February 12, 2021 [1 favorite]


motorized oyster shell
i'm starting to get the hang of this
now if only i could sleeeeeep
just one more
posted by not_on_display at 5:42 PM on February 13, 2021


It is not highly ranked but I'm inordinately pleased with my switch that is capable of turning off the sun.
posted by biogeo at 1:49 PM on February 22, 2021 [3 favorites]


Metafilter: It’s a bit suggestive, but only in the sense that it doesn’t look that much like a shark so is instead only shark like.
posted by CynicalKnight at 10:00 AM on March 1, 2021


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