Asking AI for help writing this post

I had set up this topic to do a little test of AI chatbots from Open AI's (chatGPT) and Google’s (Bard), using the simple prompt “write a short blog post on why an old TV makes a great monitor for an artist's studio”. Well, it was a no contest, ChatGPT took old TV to mean a cathode ray screen and its text was overly enthusiastic and provided very dubious reasons. Bard did provide clearly correct information and a couple of items I’d overlook. Neither appealed for direct use as the "content" in this blog.

So then I tried Generative AI (Text-to-Image) comparing Stable Diffusion versus Dall.E (using nightcafe studio). I altered the prompt a little “Artist viewing a wall-mounted LCD TV to copy a reference photo and paint at easel”. Again pretty unusable perhaps except for the large one shown below. It’s superficially ok has some artistic merit and just might be partly on topic.

Worryingly he appears to be considering painting on the wall-mounted picture, which isn't a TV!
Using his right hand attached to his left arm!!

Maybe I’m getting a bit picky now. I’m a little spooked now that Google might be downgrading access to your blog if it’s using chatGPT. 

It's alright now....

After possibly too much mucking around, I am proud of my new computer set-up and work table in my studio.

Again it is a large screen Tv mounted on the wall that really lifts this work area, integrated the computer technology and adds flexibility.

• Bigger images as reference
• Wider viewing angle, Less affected by ambient light
• You’re not chained to a desk. Better when standing (eg at an easel)
• Affordable, Repurposed rather than new consumption
• Can still be a TV and/or Chromecast.

Some Frustration along the way

The computer system in my studio has developed over time. Computers have come and gone, devices have been added and taken away or died, interfaces changed, and monitors of different sizes swapped in and out. The use of an older Bravia LCD TV wall mounted was a game changer at the time. Allowing me to redesign my work table to suit both sitting-down art-making, and/or standing at my easel (now my favourite way to work). However, this ad hoc approach meant I had a plethora of cables, power, video, audio and lots of tangled USB cables. Some actually go nowhere and are no longer used. It was a mess.

As it was playing up the old Bravia TV had apparently modified the graphic card drivers or reset something deep in the operating system. So on first attempts, I couldn’t get the repurposed TV replacement to work at all. A fair bit of time was wasted not knowing what was wrong, Attaching the computer to other monitors showed that the screen only worked when connected to the older style VGA cable but not to HDMI. Well very inconsistently on HDMI. So I dug out a very old flat-screen monitor I hadn't used for years. This gave me two screens and let me waste a lot of time checking the graphics card setting, updating drivers, swapping cables and also fiddling with the settings on the TV. Eventually, I got it going reliably.

Now to simplify that wiring….

Oh no….

My large screen TV used as a monitor in my studio was a great friend. It worked well as a sit-down position, or moving around with a wireless keyboard, but it was also wonderful for standup work (eg painting at my easel), It had a reasonable built-in sound so I avoided speakers on the table. It did what I wanted without getting in the way.

Unfortunately, it became terminally ill and I have had to pull the studio apart to find an alternative (at a reasonable price) …   Uggh, all those wires.....

What can we now believe?

I like Sean Tucker am moving to the view that the greatest threat from the current crop of large-scale neural networks, which currently indiscriminately scrap the internet for their training data, is that they will destroy the potential credibility of everything on the internet. Particularly the veracity of photographs.

  

Yet, I also agree that at least some people will appreciate the real. "We'll always want to know whether what we are looking at is real or not and justice like with Photoshop and CGI will come up with systems and rules to differentiate where it counts." Fingers crossed.