William Overington

Interestingly, Bing Chat AI states that it was trained on fully licensed training material. William

Attempts to get the AI to draw a gibbous moon were unsuccessful, even when other ways of describing that desired image were used in the prompt. A full moon was always supplied. Also, attemots to get the AI to produce a painting of the 1813 locomotive Puffing Billy were unsuccessful, always a picture of a much later (around fifty years later at least) locomotive. But it does not say it cannot do it, it just supplies something else without comment. William

Do you know why that is please? Is it anything to do with concern over intellectual property rights in case what is provided by AI is an unauthorized copy of someone else's work? I asked Bing Chat AI about whether images were copied and I was told that the AI learns the technique of the artist and then paints an original picture using that technique. I have tried Renoir, Claude Monet, Boticelli, and some others if I remember correctly. This one in the style of Claude Monet, as an experiment to observe whether the AI would do it - and it did. Original art generated by Bing Chat AI (Page 1) — Art & Literature — Alfred's Serif Users' Forums (punster.me) William

The fact of the matter is that there is no way that I could have painted a picture of anything like the quality that the AI system produced, and I would not have been commissioning a professional artist to produce such a painting for me anyway. Though that is just my hobbyist art activity. Where exactly is the claimed threat to professional designers? I am not in any way suggesting that it does not exist, I am just wondering in what circumstances AI is seen as a threat to their livelihood. William

@philipt18 Yes, I agree. @Ash I hope that the new forum for typesetting issues becomes established promptly please. William

I find the issue of Artificial Intelligence (hereinafter, AI) interesting. My own limited experience of using AI is that it can be very good, but it can also give bad results. It needs assessing. For example, I tried asking it to produce various pictures of a lady in a long green dress feeding an okapi. I chose that as I thought it probably unlikely to be have done before and because I have always liked okapi since I saw two at Bristol zoo in the 1960s, not having known of them previously. Some of the pictures produced by the AI are really lovely. For example this one. (Please click on the picture to display a larger view.) Original art generated by Bing Chat AI (Page 1) — Art & Literature — Alfred's Serif Users' Forums (punster.me) Yet some were wrong, for example, one had an animal with the body of an okapi yet with huge horns more like a gazelle. Bing Chat AI usually, yet not always, produces a set of four pictures. Selection of one, or choosing to ask again and get some different pictures, is a decision for a human. How an expert in art would assess that picture of the lady in the long green dress feeding an okapi I do not know. Yet, whatever, I am happy with the framed print of that picture that I have. Text generated by AI is interesting. Given a prompt with the outline of a story the AI will write the whole story. Some of the stories are really beautiful. Illustrated stories produced using Bing Chat AI (Page 1) — Art & Literature — Alfred's Serif Users' Forums (punster.me) Sometimes the AI has a mind of its own as to how the story flows, producing an unexpected twist in the story. AI asked to complete a story (Page 1) — Art & Literature — Alfred's Serif Users' Forums (punster.me) More threads listed as follows. Art & Literature (Page 1) — Alfred's Serif Users' Forums (punster.me) William

Possibly, but I am finding it very interesting to read people's posts. It will have run its course when people stop posting or ... ooh ... if a moderator closes down discussion, but I hope that that does not happen please. William

Maybe by discussion and iteration a good solution can be formulated. William

@Bryan Rieger Thank you for replying. Could you say more about 'archival licenses', please? William

I appreciate that such an algorithm stating format needs work to become established, yet the information that needs to be included will already be available within the Affinity proprietary format file that contains the artwork source and within the source code of the Affinity software. William

Which could possibly become a good factor in selling licences, because an artist would know that the artwork produced by the artist could have its source saved in such an algorithm stating format file and would be conserved long term regardless of whether the Affinity software remains available. William

There is information about Legal Deposit on the following web page. https://www.bl.uk/more/ William

The text could also be placed in a publication, either hardcopy and electronic, and a copy deposited with The British Library for Legal Deposit, and thus conserved in a known place. William

As it would be a plain text file of printing characters, the artwork source would be conserved whether the information is stored in an electronic plain text file, or printed on paper, or engraved on a stainless steel panel. William

@Ash Often, a software package where an end user generates original artwork saves that artwork in a proprietary format file. If the software package becomes unavailable then the artwork source information can become lost. I suggest the development of an open source plain text format where not only is the artwork itself totally described using plain text printing characters yet also the algorithm for applying that information is also stated in the same plain text file. Thus given that one plain text file a programmer skilled in the art of programming can program new software that can read that artwork source information. For example, to start such a project, one could try to define the algorithm stating format for artwork drawn using just the Pen Tool. A first step could be if every node is a sharp corner. That seems at first glance to be a relatively straightforward thing to do. The artwork could contain one or more uses of the Pen Tool, each use having two or more nodes, and some uses could be a closed loop. However, once one adds the possibility of making a node Smooth, then not only does the data about that need to be added in, but also the algorithm of how to draw the resulting curve from such data, expressed in plain text, the plain text can include parametric equations so as to draw the curves. Affinity products could allow export to an algorithm stating format file and import from an algorithm stating format file. Thus artwork would be conserved even if Affinity products cease to exist at some future time. William

Pedantry rides again. (Yes, a malapropism on a 1939 movie! 😁 ) William

Losing one's job can be a very difficult experience. William

Some readers might like to have a look at some threads about generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) that are in Alfred's forum. https://punster.me/serif/viewforum.php?id=11 In particular the following posts, the second and fourth of which shows an image produced by me using Affinity Designer patched into an image generated using AI. https://punster.me/serif/viewtopic.php?pid=4119#p4119 https://punster.me/serif/viewtopic.php?pid=4123#p4123 https://punster.me/serif/viewtopic.php?pid=4124#p4124 https://punster.me/serif/viewtopic.php?pid=4141#p4141 William

Well possibly. A suggestion has been made. I opine that it is a good suggestion and I have seconded it. In Pledge 4 Affinity and Canva constructively invite ideas. So here is an idea for @Ash to consider please. William

Yes, that would be good. I second the proposed addition of a forum for discussing typesetting issues. All posts about typesetting would be all together in one forum rather than mixed in with posts about other topics and thus not so easily noticed. William

But why did they purportedly know it was wrong? Just because all of the answers that they have found thus far have the first name James is no basis to assume that every answer will have the first name James, unless thay have been told that every answer has the same first name. Was there any reason to know that the quiz was not having fifteen answers with the first name of James and one answer that had another first name? Sort of like those pullovers that have pictures of sheep on them. William

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Though I suppose that a lot depends upon what facilities @pioneer has at home, at the club, elsewhere, or online, such as whether getting an A3 print can be done from a PDF document or is done by putting an A4 paper document into a photocopier and an A3 size print being output (do some photocopiers do that?). William

Just wondering, is there any particular reason that you did not design it as an A3 please? Enlarging from A4 to A3 will mean a ratio of around 1.414 in each of width and height. I wonder if that might cause problems with enlarging the pictures. I don't know whether it will or not, I am just wondering. By the way, number 11 is on YouTube. William