The Age Of Digital Women

 

Early on when they approached me they were obviously using computer generated images of women. They don’t have the look of actual photographs and something always seems off. I started out in 3D rendering with the Commodore Amiga in the mid-80’s so I can spot a fake swiftly. And these early images were so badly done it just about defeats the purpose of trying to snag someone with these images. I would offer that some men probably were. Some guys can’t get past a pretty face. Having been a stock photographer I noticed quickly that something wasn’t right. Such as the backgrounds lacking the proper depth-of-field (background blur) and the general look of exquisite perfection among the models. Who has skin like this? All CGI models look perfect as do the environments they are placed in. They are of one race, no others.

For more and image examples please go to my Substack post:

https://open.substack.com/pub/georgebailey/p/the-age-of-digital-women

AI Image Creation With Grok-2

 

Instant picture making with a sentence.  

Musk announced Grok, the company’s answer to ChatGPT, in November, while Grok 1.5 debuted in April. The chatbot is available exclusively to Premium subscribers on X. Musk's xAI startup is also preparing to build what might be the world’s largest supercomputer in Memphis, Tennessee, which will handle Grok training.  Emily Price, PCmag.com.

Long before I became a photographer I had studied art.  Fine art to begin with and later graphic design and advertising.  During this time I’ve done some of everything for designing logos, airbrush illustrations, fine art painting, portrait painting, etc.  Later, when home computers became the next big thing I was interested in using them for design and art projects.  I recall my first experience in the mid 1980’s with 3D rendering using Sculpt 3D on the Commodore Amiga.  Just rending a few objects took hours, sometimes in the evening running the computer all night to render simple images.

One day I received an email from one of my photo stock agencies that AI images were acceptable for submission and sale.   I knew nothing about it and was unsure where to start.  Then recently, Grok-2 was announced by Elon Musk for August.  Up until then I had only used Grok to answer questions for research purposes.  I didn’t know it could render images as well.  Once I learned that Grok could create images I decided to explore what it could do.  What follows are my experiences with this new imaging technology.

Full article with examples posted at Substack--

https://open.substack.com/pub/georgebailey/p/ai-image-creation-with-grok-2

Your AI Is Watching You

When your phone has a mind of its own.

I do journaling but only for “strange things.”  Strange things started happening when my mother passed in her sleep and vibe in the house changes, as it will someone dies in it, and while events have slowed down there are still incidences that I will continue to document.

One recent example is when I looked at a photographer’s portfolio on Pbase and then a few weeks later one of his photos appeared on my phone.   I have no idea how it got there.  I didn’t view the photographer’s site on my phone, only on my Mac Mini.  I never web surf on my phone.  The phone’s WIFI is off, all the time.  And I only viewed his portfolio, which has about 25 or 30 images on a page and the photo was just one image off that page.  I did not download any of his images, it was just me looking at a page of pictures.  Nor do I interface my phone with the Mac, only my Macbook.  I do not use my desktop to recharge the phone or upload and download apps.  I did not view the portfolio images on my Macbook only on the Mac Mini.  

Another odd thing, in a list of many, is that the image was slightly blurred.  Perhaps the result of a compression routine being used to transmit the image from my computer to the phone?

I have no idea how this happened or the means to how it occurred.  I wondered if it could have been a virus, but then there is the problem of how the image flew thru the air to land on my phone.  I deleted the image, which I now regret, as it would be added proof (for me at least) that this strange event transpired. I routinely check the photographs on my phone from here on so see if other web site images appear.

Was somebody or some three-letter agency running a test? A test that accidentally leaked?  They keep tabs on us bloggers so maybe this was done on the hope I would post an article on the event? If so, it worked.  I assume there is black budget technology and a host of backdoors loaded on these devices. Government surveillance and law enforcement demand it.  I would have not known this happened except I intended to send a picture to a friend and that is when I discovered this image on my phone.  

This is not my only excursion into smart phone strangeness.  On three occasions during using the speech to text translator, my iPhone printed what I was thinking about rather than I said.  

For example, as I was replying to a friend’s text, I had been reminiscing about my grandmother who had passed away over 20 years earlier and the text printed was “grandmother.” Only that one word and nothing of what I spoke.  At the time I suspected there is more to the AI in these devices than has be released to the public.

So beware.  Big AI may be watching you.