Practical AI uses, maybe?

[toprob]

So far, my posts about AI have been mainly to take the mickey, considering how excited people are about it, and the fact that I'm far to old to ever see it as something I can seamlessly integrate into my life. I do the same thing with my family, this week I've been using ChatGPT to acknowledge birthday greetings, just to wind everyone up.
But so far I've found a couple of practical uses for the PhotoShop Generative Fill, which I've previously used to just add random rubbish to photos. As well as being able to place any object seamlessly into a photo, if you don't choose any prompt then it will erase what it considers to be the subject within your mask, and create a background to make the object disappear. This is great for tidying up aerial images, there are always shadows and objects sitting around which you don't want to be part of the background image, so there's a lot of tidying up to do. Sure, I normally use things like the Spot Healing brush and Clone Stamp tool, but these aren't always successful if the background needs to be a bit more complex. Gen Fill does a much better job most of the time, guessing what should be there, and you get three choices each time you press the button, so just pick the best and there's your aircraft or whatever gone.

Another thing it can do, which I've seen demonstrated on Youtube, is to blend two different images together in a meaningful way. I've been experimenting with my model railway, where eventually I want to have a background photo which blends seamlessly with the actual modelled hills etc. As you can imagine, getting the real world to blend with a bunch of green blobs glued to some plaster isn't easy to do realistically, but I've started with some screenshots from Google Earth (just so you understand what I'm talking about, but really I use Bing Maps which is a lot more current), colour-correct them as far as I can to match a photo of the layout, then combine them top and bottom in Photoshop and use GF to make a plausible transition. Eventually I'll do this with some drone shots, so this is just a proof of concept, but it works out really well.

The goal is to get an A0 print done, both 1.2 metre sections of the layout taking up top and bottom, then split it into 2 and paste it onto a board behind the layout.

So although I'll still take the piss with any AI, I am finding some actual uses!

[deeknow]

haha keep up w the birthday greetings, seems like the most appropriate use of the tech

[toprob]

Some more playing with some practical uses for AI today, after signing up once again to a Midjourney subscription. That's the tool which generates images using text prompts, and it is in constant development, so I thought I'd take a look at how it's progressed since I used it last. Yesterday I had it make me some flightsim screenshots, some of which I posted here, and although there's still a lot it has to learn about aircraft, it's been a fun exercise.

I used one of these images as the Homepage background on my website, but as Midjourney restricts me to 1024x1024px, or the equivalent depending on the aspect ratio, this isn't at impressive as it could be. So I went looking at free image upscalers, which have been around for a long time, but have recently gained a lot of popularity on the back of AI imagery.

I tried a couple of online tools, and settled on Img2Go. There seems to be a bit of a bug with this, as when I choose 2x upscale it gives me 4x, but I'm not complaining. Now I wouldn't trust this with a real photo of mine, but it really comes into its own with the AI images.

So I was wondering if it would have any practical uses for me, and I tried a couple of flightsim scenery texture sheets. This is something I have been doing manually moving my older P3D airports to MSFS, I have been doubling the size of the existing texture sheets, which doesn't give you any real advantage, but then redoing some of the individual buildings from the original source photos, at the new size. This takes a long time, and there are plenty of limitations.

However I upscaled a few old NZCH textures online, and the results are very good. The upscaler I chose gives a bit of a 'computery' look, making everything look like it belongs in a video game, but for MSFS this is ideal, when combined with PBR effects.

Not too sure whether I'd ever release anything using this sort of technique, but it is fun to play around with it.

I did mention the report on the TVNZ 'Sunday' documentary last night, about the issues etc with AI imagery, video, 'deep fakes' etc. There was one guy in the States with an AI girlfriend, via an app on his phone and computer, plus a life-sized 'doll'. Don't worry, that definitely isn't the next phase for me....

[Charl]

No need to get funky with the dolls, flightsim can use up all that energy and more... you could hide "Easter Eggs" in the scenery for the curious, if needed.
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[cowpatz]

Yes, that guy with the doll was somewhat concerning. He actually seemed like quite a bright guy too, but hey, it is a very weird world we live in now.
I know that it is a pessimistic viewpoint, but I would suggest that AI will not only accelerate the current rate of social collapse but ultimately the destruction of mankind. Forget climate change. Sometime ago I read an article that concerned the development of hypersonic nuclear missiles. Due to the incredible speed at which they travel a human being would take too long to react to the incoming threat and that the only counter launch solution is an AI one. A "Terminator Skynet" scenario springs to mind here.
There is a very good BBC 2 part series on TVNZ+ (TVNZ on demand) called "The Capture". Well worth viewing and we seem to be most of the way there already.

[Fozzer]

AI, (Artificial Intelligence), is certainly not new to me, since the first of my Desktop personal computers in the 1990s, with their installed Microsoft Windows operating system, and connecting to the Internet via the old telephone Dial-up connection system, (re-dial again after an hour or so of use!). What soon became obvious was the use of the Internet Search Engine software provided by a number of Internet Service providers, and computer processor software, whereby a typed text into the "Search Box" would suggest a number of options for the required subject. All this was done by the mix of algorithm data written into the search engine service providers software, and computer processor software. The simple act of tying, letter by letter, into the search engine of the likes of: "Google" and "YouTube", etc instantly provides a list of suggestions for the subject matter the computer user is looking for, often remembering previous results carried out by the computer user. All this is carried out by the magic of the specific AI computer data written onto the programs. The computer data just becomes more and more sophisticated and specialised over time, to the extent that it is doing more and more work for us, without us realising! Just typing, letter-by-letter, into my YouTube search box provides a magnitude of everything I am looking for, and want to know! My Computer AI Engine knows everything about me now, that I have long forgotten! "AI" is nuffin' new.....trust me... ... ... ...!

Paul... :UK: ...!

It "sometimes" gives me the correct/suitable weather forecast before I go for my ride on my motorcycle.... ... ...LOL...!!