Before I shut down the recent experiment with AI character portraits, I thought I’d do a few with the not-quite-ready-for-prime-time results that I received. I have broken them into categories, with the first being what I call the Kindas. Meaning that something about them kinda reminds me of the character, but the overall result was still a no.

FRED

Fred is the way that I discovered that the AI does not do regular people well. I had little to choose from where Fred was concerned, and this was the best of the bunch. It probably says something about how our media and society prioritize pretty, because I don’t think the AI had a lot of images of pudgy, balding guys in bad suits. And when it did, they were never happy looking. Fred is often happy, and is much cuter than this. But then, that’s why he’s in this group.

 

CAEDMON

You know, I don’t hate this. I know, I know, he looks more like a frat boy than a several thousand-year-old fey king, and the AI did insist on giving him golden horns (I think it’s supposed to be some sort of crown). But there’s something about the expression that works. Do I think this is Caedmon? No, which is why he’s in the reject pile. But do I think the smugness is pretty spot on? Kind of.

 

JONAS

Jonas Marsden, acting head of the Silver Circle, was another one who was hard to pin down. Again, this managed to look not entirely unlike Jonas, and yet miss the mark by quite a bit. It’s mostly the hair, which is not nearly wild enough, and the fact that he reminds me of Sir Anthony Hopkins for some reason, which isn’t a bad thing, just not Jonas. But he’s the closest I came, so here we are. On the plus side, I did get an absolutely hilarious cartoon (despite not asking for a cartoon) of Jonas and Agnes on a date to test out a new contraption he’d designed for racing through the ley lines.  So that’s something.