So I struggle with being opposed to AI but then using AI to bring my ideas to life. I have grand visions for what I want to create but very limited ability to create what I envision. It is so tempting to turn to AI and have it accomplish what I want to create… But at that point am I just a small seed (full of potential but unable to grow by myself) and AI the plant (the thing that gets to bask in the glory of the sun)?
But before I get too offtrack and wax philosophical and moral and what have you, I write this post today to share a sketch I created. I sketched with pencil. I could see what colors I wanted and how I wanted it to look if it were in color and I a better artist. But I couldn’t make it happen without asking AI to take all my details and convert it.
At some point I think (aka fear) our society will consider the ability to create a good AI prompt the sign of intelligence – instead of a person using their God-given brain fully we will “offload” it to a simulation of a brain. This type of thing is what Pope Leo IV warns against in his encyclical “Magnifica Humanitas”.
And whilst I fear this eventual outcome I in this moment partake in my own demise? It’s kind of like sitting on a train track fearful the train will come and hit but you just continue to sit there as you watch the train get closer and closer.
That said, I plugged some stuff into AI. I said “convert the image to be like what you would see in a catholic church. the background should be transparent. the background in the circle and triangle should be gold. the dove should be white but with wings that are a mix of feathers and flames. the dove’s tail should also be flames. the dove should have a pierced breast. the bottom of the triangle should look like jesus’ crown of thorns. the eye at the top should have 7 rays extending down to the dove’s shoulders. the circle line should be blue.”
So here is what I sketched (while inside a church listening to a great talk about Mary):
Here is what ChatGPT did with it:
It is frustratingly simple for AI to just make a thing come to life better than I could ever eek out on my own and under my own creative powers (well, the ones God has given to me). And it’s not like I can afford to commission an artist to create bespoke artwork or devote more free time than I have to learn how to muddle thru and make something myself. I can use Adobe tools in a rudimentary way, but I would never get anywhere near this for all my efforts.
So I am torn — AI has blossomed something from my seed. It’s not perfect (primarily because my sketch wasn’t a perfectly centered circle-triangle). But I’d hate to say it is better than what I created myself. But I feel like 999.9 times out of 1000 someone would readily say the ChatGPT version is better than mine.
So Humanity is Magnificent. God gave me a beautiful thought, the capacity to take pencil to paper and sketch out that thought, and have something exist that never previously existed. It was organic and true and real and tactile and physical. But then AI came in its “one-up-man-ship” ways and was like “oh that, I got this, no big, beep-boop, splat” and splatted out a pretty impressive digital version of a thought I had. …So is this where I stop? Or perhaps I take AI’s seed and work to create my own plant from it? … I don’t know. But I do know I wanted to share.
I also sketched out a Lamb of God:
I told ChatGPT: “the attached is the lamb of god with symbols for jesus. convert this to something you’d see in a catholic church. with the palm branch, wheat, grapes and vine, lamb on the book of the seven seals, the lamb has a pierced breast, with the agnus dei banner, with a chalice and host in the middle, and behind the lamb is a large host with “IHS” on it. these things are in the attached sketch image. make the background transparent.“
It beep-boop-splatted out this .. not exactly adhering to my sketch but I can’t complain can I?:
It even added in an altar under the book… and it shifted things around and really doubled down on the “IHS” and had fun really elaborating the banner. A few major issues here with it having (1) a weird non-lamb tail and (2) also sitting on an open book above the book of the seven seals and (3) being a bit bloodier than it should probably be . …But at the end of the day arguably better?? …Though I do remain partial to my cute lamb and its ‘complex simplicity’ vs ChatGPT’s over-the-top-somewhat-inaccurate-representation-that-definitely-gets-stuff-wrong interpretation.
When AI makes something from my seed I am the genesis but am I its creator?
Give God Your Yes 