Do you recognize this Westport scene?
How about this one?
In February, I posted a story on the pros and cons of public beach access. It was objective, factual and clear.
Only at the end did I reveal that I did not write it.
It was generated entirely by ChatGPT, the chatbot launched in November that has electrified the world.
But artificial intelligence is not confined only to writing blog posts (or college essays, love letters and anything else anyone can think of).
Alert — and inquisitive — “06880” reader Paul Delano has been working with AI technologies. ChatGPT is not the only one.
DALL-E is another program developed by OpenAI. It can generate images from text descriptions. (The name pays homage to artist Salvador Dali, and animated character WALL-E.)
It is based on the same technology as OpenAI’s GPT-3 language model, which uses deep learning algorithms to generate text.
DALL-E is trained on a massive dataset of images and text descriptions, allowing it to generate original images based on a written prompt.
For example, given the phrase “an armchair in the shape of an avocado,” DALL-E can generate an image of just that.
“DALL-E is seen as a major advancement in the field of AI-generated images,” Paul says.
“It can create images that are both novel and highly specific to the text prompt provided. The technology has potential applications in fields such as graphic design, advertising, and medicine.”
And in creating fake — but very real-looking — images of Westport.
Just for fun, Paul typed “Westport, CT” in the DALL-E AI image generator. It gave him 4 options to choose from.
“I was amazed at how on the first pass it gave 4 different views that could all be in Westport,” he writes. (At least, I hope it was him and not ChatGPT.)
“They are completely made up, yet look like they could be from Compo Beach or the Saugatuck River in different seasons of the year.”
Here’s one more “photo” of Westport:
It looks so familiar.
And yet it so very, very fake.
(“06880” is not fake. We are very real — and we exist on very real reader support. Please click here to help. Thank you!)
