Last February, I took my first foray into the world of AI and wrote a post about the experience. I had used ChatGPT to write a story about a girl, art, trauma and writing. It was okay, but repetitive. I had tried PIXLR next, which is one of the many AI image generators, and prompted it to search the same words. Here was one result:
I was impressed with the concept of words on the easel instead of a painted image. I enjoyed AI’s visual possibilities more than ChatGPT and remembered it.
Fast forward to November. I am someone who loves the yearly tradition of creating and printing Christmas/holiday cards. I go all out with a folded card design so there is room to add brief paragraphs with some photos and print it from places like OptimalPrint or Snapfish.
As I was looking at my own potential photos for this year’s card, I realized I didn’t have a holiday scene (another tradition) for the cover. Folly.
We can guess what immediately came to mind. Artificial Intelligence. Would it work or look too fake? I could try it out and then decide.
I didn’t use PIXLR this time as I had discovered Canva. Canva is an online design tool which creates many types of visual content. Their AI component is called the Dream Lab.
So, I entered the Dream Lab cautiously.
My first prompt to capture a feeling was “Christmas ornament made up with colored lights.” I was surprised, but not in a good way! In it’s defense, it did create exactly what I wrote. Its shape reminded me of a cloved orange.
After some thought, I typed in “Christmas river with colored lights.” WOW. I found this result enchanting. It was like a Holiday Hobbit village on the river. I liked it very much, but the sky had too much daylight in it.
For my last attempt, I tried “Christmas river with colored lights night sky” and lo, and behold, the magic appeared. I said nothing about trees, but they lined the river bank perfectly and the colored lights reflected in the water. It was gorgeous.
I had my front cover, but felt a moment of guilt. Should I be using AI on a holiday card? I was injecting a fake element into a tradition of true, simply joy for the holiday season; whether it be Hanukah or Christmas or Kwanzaa. Did AI belong in this sacrosanct space? Was I going down some technical slippery slope? I mean, one of these things would definitely not be like the others. It felt a little weird. I liked the image, though, and wanted to use it. I decided I would acknowledge that the trees were AI and that it was an experiment.
Suddenly, I wanted to try something else as well. For 25 plus years, I have put up my Christmas village and its people and snowy scenes. Almost every year has brought a new building, tree or resident. There is nothing like twilight when I turn its lights on and it comes alive.
So, I turned to Canva for one more experiment. My prompt was “Miniature Christmas village at night.” I then pulled an old photo of my village. What a difference.
It wasn’t the “cartoon” feel of the AI version, nor the lack of festive holiday lighting (although both contribute to the AI cons.) No, it was the lack of people, neighbors, children or even one Santa. And that’s interesting. AI isn’t human, so it can’t feel that adding human figurines is essential to the image. Without a specific word prompt, it doesn’t consider that a pretend village set up during the holidays would need happy “people” shopping, playing, working; getting ready for the big day, albeit it in a pretty, evening setting. As Shakespeare said, “What is the city but the people?”
AI is still learning and still limited. It is going to be very hard for it to pick up on human needs and interactions. And that’s okay by me. It does create some beautiful images though! I finished mailing those cards last week. Season’s Greetings to everyone!
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