I love fiddling around with new tools and tech. The application of AI in the field of design, creativity has been eye opening in the recent months. To be honest, I never thought AI would evolve in our lifetimes to be able to create / design. According to the fiction writers the AI take over was supposed to be: Manual tasks > Left brain tasks > Right brain (creative) tasks > 'Skynet' crescendo. Yet, here we are, witnessing AI not only assist but actually create. Nuts.

I spent the past few weeks playing around with a few of the new tools that are out there, a few are invite only / early beta. Some of the more interesting projects out there are: DALL-E, VQGAN, Art Breeder and Wombo.

My First Impressions:

The mere idea that lines of code can visualise and create images from mere text prompts is nothing short of mind-blowing.

These tools are far from perfect, but they're starting points. For instance, here’s an image I generated using Womba with the keywords "Rajnikanth, black and white" and "Da Vinci-inspired, black and white etching style". It's a glimpse into AI's nascent creative potential and I'm totally sold.

Having recently played around with Dall-e, a diffusion model by Sam Altman’s team at OpenAI, I can tell you it's impressive. The pace at which these tools are improving is crazy.

AI and the Future of Design Jobs? As someone who enjoys design, I view these AI tools as just that – tools. Much like the camera didn't render painters obsolete, these AI tools will augment rather than replace designers. These tools will be invaluable in visualizing new ideas from multiple AI generations, overcoming creative blocks, and enhancing efficiency at the very least.

Looking Forward:

Continual Improvement: With more compute power and training, these models are going to improve exponentially.

New Forms of Storytelling: Imagine recreating an AI generated scene/image with subtle variations to create flipbook-style short videos or GIFs. Imo, the potential for this in short-form video content is immense.

Embracing the AI Renaissance: I'm all in on this AI-driven renaissance. It’s not just about the tech; it’s about how it empowers each of us. From fostering curiosity to enabling creation and learning, AI has the potential to revolutionise our individual experiences and collective creativity.

I'm pretty stoked for what’s to come. This isn’t just about technology evolving; it's about us evolving with it, exploring new horizons, and redefining what's possible in design and beyond. I'm strapped in, are you?