AI-Generated Images

While hard news types tend to be leery of using fabricated images with news stories, some are apparently making an exception for text-to-art images.

That includes the BBC.

Observes Joe Whitwell, a product manager at BBC: “Anyone who has worked in a newsroom knows that finding good images is time-consuming.

“So, we use Extractive Summarisation here.”

The tool works by using keywords in an article as text prompts for the text-to-art generator — which in turn auto-produces a fabricated image that’s posted along with the news story.

Long-term, that could add graphic artists — especially those in low-funded, local news operations — to the list of news professionals who could see their jobs gobbled-up by AI.

Observes Will Chase, associate editor of data visualization, Axios: “Budgets are being increasingly squeezed and they may not have the money to hire illustrators and designers.”

In other AI-generated writing news:

*In-Depth Guide: Scalenut: LearnWire offers an in-depth look at Scalenut in this 34-minute video — one of the most popular AI writers on the market today.

LearnWire’s verdict: Scalenut offers one of the largest toolsets available in AI writing — while still being fairly easy and intuitive to use.

Put another way: Two thumbs up.

Given that this video assumes you have an intermediate knowledge of how AI writers work, you may want to acquaint yourself with AI writing with RobotWritersAI.com’s in-depth guide:

“Writing With AI — Learn the Basics in One Day,” by Joe Dysart.

*Shoot-Out: Copy.ai versus Jasper: Predis.ai prefers
Jasper to Copy.ai in this shoot-out between the two — although it finds both AI writers as extremely helpful.

Predis.ai opts for Jasper in the end given Jasper’s ability to integrate with Copyscape and Surfer SEO “allows customers to acquire SEO-optimized, plagiarism-free content without having to copy-paste text between tools.

“Furthermore, the selection of copywriting templates accessible with Jasper is significantly wider than that available with Copy AI.

“And the outputs were more to our taste and more likely to connect with the audience.”

*Automated News at the Toronto Star: So Far, So Good: Content managers at the Toronto Star indicate automation of some news stories have so far proven beneficial to the newspaper — and are not stepping on any reporter’s toes, according to Hannaa Tameez, a writer for Nieman Lab.

Currently, the Star offers automated news on health inspections of restaurants, bars and similar — as well as automated crime reports on auto thefts along with home and related break-ins.

One surprise: Break-and-enter crimes tend to happen in neighborhoods with large populations — regardless of income status.

Observes Cody Cault, product manager for content, Toronto Star: “The impression the (auto-crime-news) series gives is that there tend to be somewhere between 35 and 55 break-and-enters reported in Toronto each week [and that] it’s relatively uncommon for there to be more than two break-and-enters reported in any particular neighborhood in any given week.

*Coming Soon, AI-Generated Stock Images for News Outlets: Editors and reporters who would rather turn to graphic pros for AI-generated art will soon have that option.

Shutterstock — one of the most popular sources of stock images on the Web — has just cut a deal to sell images generated with DALL-E-2, one of the most popular text-to-art generators on the Web.

Interestingly, Shutterstock plans to pay creators of AI-generated art on its service — as well as artists whose original images were sources in the making of that art, according to writer Jon Fingas.

*AI-Generated Writing: Resistance is Futile: Add Mike Sharples, professor of educational technology, Open University, to the growing list of academics who view the use of AI-generated writing by students as a done deal.

Observes Sharples: “You can either take a sort of apocalyptic view of, AI is going to put professional writers out of a job, it’s all doom and gloom and AI is going to take over.

“Or you can take the glass-half-full approach, which is that there are some amazing tools that are coming, and as writers we can make good use of them — and as teachers, we can make good use of them.”

Or, you might believe that AI’s disruption of the writing world will be a mix of both.

*Higher Ed: Time to Rethink How Writing Works With Schooling?: Increasing numbers of professors are realizing that AI-generated writing could completely change how writing is integrated into the college curriculum, according to this excellent article in Inside Higher Ed.

Observes Ethan Mollick, associate professor of management, University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School: “I just tried Moonbeam and it produced an outline and credible undergraduate essay with just the prompt ‘legitimation and startups.’”

“And that is without human intervention.”

Adds Stephen Monroe, assistant professor of writing and rhetoric, University of Mississippi: “All language scholars and teachers will need to reckon with these applications, and very soon.

“Silicon Valley is developing them feverishly.”

The takeaway: So far, the problem has been clearly identified.

But academia is uncertain about where to go from there.

*Generative AI: Long-Term Implications for the Human Imagination?: Commercial AI’s ability to auto-generate writing, art and video could wind-up undermining the human imagination, according to writer Annie Dorsen.

Dorsen predicts pro artists will most likely not be satisfied with the current crop of AI art tools.

But Dorsen worries about everyone else.

“When tinkerers and hobbyists, doodlers and scribblers—not to mention kids just starting to perceive and explore the world—have this kind of instant gratification at their disposal, their curiosity is hijacked and extracted.”

*One Hundred Million More Users Getting Text-to-Image Technology: Talk about taking the world by storm: Popular graphic design software Canva has integrated a text-to-art tool into its software suite with a roll-out that started in September.

Ultimately, that means that one hundred million users of Canva have already been exposed to the new technology — or will be very soon.

Observes Cameron Adams, co-founder, Canva: “We’re treating this as very much a learning experience for our community.

“We’re keen to get this technology in front of them because it’s an emergent field, and the exact way it works and how customers will interact with it is still being developed.”

*AI Big Picture: With AI, Tom Cruise Can Star in Your Next YouTube Video — Gratis: Power users of AI creation tools are finding ways to auto-generate images of celebrities — and then drop them in short videos for their amusement, according to writer Adario Strange.

A key source of these celebrity images: Text-to-art generator Stability.AI, which unlike similar tools, freely allows users to add celebrity images to its generative AI process.

Adds Strange: “What began as AI image generation has quickly evolved into experimental animations.”

The animations are made possible, according to Strange, by combining AI-generated images with animation-forging tools like Deforum, Google Colab, and Ebsynth.

Adds Strange: “These cobbled-together animations are just the start.

“Full-fledged original AI videos — derived from text prompts — are already on the way.”

Apparently, it’s true: The genie is out of the bottle.

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–Joe Dysart is editor of RobotWritersAI.com and a tech journalist with 20+ years experience. His work has appeared in 150+ publications, including The New York Times and the Financial Times of London.