Important Details

You might have noticed that, sometimes, a shadow in the background can make the shape of a face all wrong.  Or a dark shape right near someone's hair can make the hair look untidy.  Shadows, and strange shapes in the background can really play havoc with an image that would otherwise be perfect.  With AI, the problems are worse; some of these programs aren't smart enough to realize that anything is wrong, so the human artist has to be extra vigilant. 

AI—I mean the semi-intelligent programs that generate images according to instructions—have many weaknesses that have been noticed.  One of them is that AI apps struggle with drawing images of hands.  Recently I was admiring a picture; it was one of a young girl—I'd say a teenager, based on her build, her expression, her clothes—wildly freckled, with an artless smile.  I was captivated.  She was standing astride a bicycle, when I noticed that her left hand had five fingers.  We expect that there has to be four fingers, usually, and a thumb.  AI mistakes having to do with fingers have been noticed for a long time. 

Now, the code needed to make hands always have the proper number of fingers, unfortunately, would be far longer than most of the other segments of code.  And fingers are far less noticeable than other aspects of the image that artists (well, the pseudo-artists who wrangle AI programs) are mostly concerned about.  If the the AI company wants to sell its App, those other aspects have to be perfect.  So fingers have far lower priority. 

But this means the artist has to look after the fingers.  Now I'm not an artist.  But I could take care of fingers far more easily than these artist have been able to.  And it's not just fingers; I've seen a picture of a nude girl, sitting with one knee bent, and her arm around the knee; unfortunately, the software has carefully placed a nipple on the knee.  (It would have gone on the breast that was obscured by the knee.)

Ten years from now—or even next year—the software standards will be higher, or people will begin to use pricier software, whose manufacturers can afford to pay better programmers to avoid hilarious mistakes like these.  But until then, 'artists' will have to take up the slack, and keep an eye out for software errors that can be repaired, and they must repair them.

I think I can slip in a detail of the photo I mentioned ...

Two fingers go from middle knuckle.

I have to say, again, how much I love this photo, in spite of the error.  Not many would notice the error, I must admit. 

Kay