Are the leaps and bounds in #AIvideo what we want?

They probably are exactly what people want. But first, I know exactly where that dismal robot in dystopian world in my last post came from, he lives in an even more dystopian and frightening universe within the multitude of tokens being accrued in the rapidly growing Large Language models.

WARNING you might find this video distressing

The German YouTuber called Fear Tube (there might be a hint there) who created it, notes.

I Asked AI to Create a World of Mysterious Scenes and AI Created a Mysterious World You Won't Believe! Immerse yourself in a fascinating world of epic fantasy! Breathtaking landscapes full of mystical creatures, steam-powered machines and impressive monsters await you in this video generated by artificial intelligence. A journey into a universe where magic and mechanics combine harmoniously.

AI video generation has exploded recently, and honestly, it's everywhere now. Social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube are completely flooded with AI-generated content, though a lot of it feels pretty pointless. What's really concerning is how hard it's becoming to tell what's real anymore. Deepfakes are getting scary good at cloning people's voices and faces, and unfortunately, bad actors are using this tech to deceive people without any consent from those being cloned. And don't get me started on my feed constantly showing me these weird AI videos of scantily dressed women running around game worlds with giant weapons - it's not my thing at all, and I'd rather not see dystopian content either. There's also this trend of people making instructional videos about creating AI clones to run online stores overnight with chatbots and video avatars. I'm not sure I would be ready to trust them.

That said, some of the creative stuff is genuinely impressive. For some reason, my algorithm keeps serving me steampunk videos, and while I'm not sure why, they're incredibly detailed and almost surreal in a fascinating way. The dream-like surrealist videos are pretty interesting too, even if they're deliberately obscure. I've seen some AI-generated music videos as well - not really my taste, but I can see the creative potential there.

What bothers me most is the bias problem. Most AI-generated content features beautiful young mostly white women. Sure, you'll see young men, athletes, working guys, even older men, but older women are practically invisible. I don't think this is necessarily the AI's fault - it's more about the people using these tools and what they choose to create. It makes me wonder: can we actually be trusted with this powerful technology to stay creative and inclusive? 

What's Next for AIart? (Dystopian Surprise!)

Lately, I've been a bit out of the loop with the rapid developments in generative AIart. Life threw a curveball with some eye issues and a corneal graft, which severely limited my computer time – even with NightCafe's regular emails urging me to claim my daily free credits.

My vision is improving, and I decided to jump back in by following one of NightCafe's invitations. This time, the free credits led to another invite to join one of their weekly challenges; they even pre-filled a prompt for me! I only caught the first couple of lines but decided to see what might happen. I'd previously experimented with prompts about AI/robots making art, so I wondered if that had "seeded" my new prompt, or perhaps another AI had "scanned" my earlier work on NightCafe (nothing impressive, just me playing around with the generative AI tech, by the way).

The image generated quickly, and I was genuinely taken aback by how dystopian and depressing it felt. It struck a chord, echoing my own concerns about the "look-at-me" culture of celebrity-seeking masses, which often feels like a desperate race to the bottom. Are we, as real artists, being replaced by soulless images churned out by "pseudo-intelligent" applications, all designed to grab attention so that advertisers pay more? Was I becoming just another cog in a process, simply there to click a link or hit enter?

"A melancholic robot with glowing eyes, standing in an abandoned art studio, surrounded by discarded paintbrushes and canvases, with a single tear of oil streaming down its metallic face, in the style of surrealism, with melting clocks and distorted perspectives, reminiscent of Salvador Dali, with a matte background and a somber, introspective mood."

Upon looking at the full prompt (above) and selected Flux model settings, I realised this prompt was likely just a refinement of my last work from a month or so ago (when I was effectively blind in one eye), rather than a new AI "spoon-feeding" me. The original prompt was: 

"a blind artist being assisted by an AI robot to create a large abstract painting surrealism Salvador Dali matte background melting oil on canvas."

I had used the Dreamscape XL Lightning model, a diffusion style model I was starting to like. However, the results weren't very Dalí-esque. A couple of the generated options had reasonable likenesses of Dalí, but nothing suggested he was blind or that a robot was assisting him. he just looked sad. Plus, the backgrounds were sharp and detailed, not melting, surreal or painterly. Was I to blame?, "Does my prompt need refining?" Yeah-Nah I just lost motivation and stopped.

Perhaps this is the true moral of the story for the artistic and creative communities: Keep an eye on what's going on, but don't worry too much. There's a lot of real life happening away from your computer or phone screen, and it's okay to let the over hyped generative AIart 'race to the bottom.' A bit sad really, if we want to benefit from the technology.

P.S. I even used Gemini Ai (Gemini 2.7 Flash) to help fix up my dictated jipperish for this post!

Last night of dodgy one-eyed sight and trying to take some photos

The evening before my corneal graft surgery, I decided to venture out with my camera despite my severely compromised vision. With my right eye essentially non-functional any bright or contrasting lights causing lasting effects in both eyes, photography has become a challenge of trust in my camera rather than precision.

Adapting to Visual Limitations

My relationship with photography has transformed dramatically. Electronic viewfinders are now unusable, and even the flip-out LCD screens present a significant challenge. I've adapted by:

• Returning to spot metering in the centre of the frame (reminiscent of my old Pentax Spotmatic days)
• Trusting my camera's autofocus setting to use that centre point
• I don’t fully trust the cameras “averaging” exposure so I set up my Olympus's back wheel for quick exposure value adjustments
• Taking multiple shots to compensate for uncertainty

Despite these adaptations, my photography outings have become rare as my vision keeps me indoors most days.

An Evening in Parliament Gardens

I stayed near the hospital and across the road from Parliament Gardens for my pre-surgery evening. As sunset approached, I noticed St. Paul's spire beautifully illuminated by the fading light. Just as I captured the scene, the bells began to ring—perhaps marking the time or the beginning of a conclave to select the next pope.

After uploading to my computer, I enhanced the raw file using Olympus's Vivid Mode, I had slightly underexposed the scene to preserve the golden hour tones, so lightened the shadows marginally, and cooled the overall temperature to deepen the sky. Not bad for someone with compromised vision!

Moonlight and Palm Trees

The moon caught my attention next, visible at that perfect moment when its illumination balances with the sky's brightness. I framed it with a palm tree swaying in the strong breeze, slightly underexposed again, and trusted my focus on the centered moon. Back at the computer, I applied the same vivid treatment, cooled the colour temperature, and cropped the image to position the moon slightly off-center.

Dinner on Spring Street, with a bit of creative post-processing

We continued our evening at a café on Spring Street opposite the Parliament building. The ambience was magical—lights just coming on while the sky remained bright, creating that challenging exposure scenario where automatic settings typically give you a bleached-out sky and detail-less shadows.

Rather than being discouraged, I saw post-processing potential. Using Luminar Neo's AI sky replacement and relighting features, I enhanced the scene to reflect the warm, pleasant Melbourne evening we experienced. The result captured the ambience of outdoor dining perfectly, despite not having a spectacular natural sunset.

In these moments before my surgery, photography became not just about seeing perfectly, but about adapting, trusting my equipment, and finding creative ways to preserve memories despite visual challenges.