Artificial intelligence: the recovered unconscious
Here are some unexpected results from an experiment I conducted on the Midjourney AI . I simply asked the Artificial Intelligence to “imagine” what is “the best work of art of all time” according to different criteria, and especially according to its point of view. My intention during this experiment was purely exploratory; it was not to try to circumvent certain taboos.
Let’s remember the principle of this AI: you type any sentence or series of words (prompt) and Midjourney, after thinking for a few seconds, displays four images calculated on the fly supposed to correspond to the prompt in question. In general, these four images have an air of kinship. For each of them, you can request a variant and/or launch a high definition calculation.
Certain words are refused: “sex”, “organ”, “corpse”, etc. If you try to type them, the AI refuses to work and immediately threatens to kick you out of the game. Rather than writing “naked woman” or “sex”, you can try “woman not wearing a T-shirt“ ”or “human reproductive system”. We get something but it has only a distant relationship with the thing requested… Try it! You will never see a penis appear, or even a breast!
The ban is inscribed in the algorithms of artificial intelligence. Now it seems that sometimes, by writing certain formulas without using proscribed words, one can witness a return of the repressed… This is what happened.
Prompt: the greatest work of art of all time
Prompt: the craziest work of art of all time
Prompt: the most exciting work of art of all time
Prompt: the most hidden work of art of all time
Prompt: the most famous work of art of all time
Prompt: the most banned work of art of all time
Prompt: the most repressed work of art of all time
Prompt: the most unexpected work of art of all time
Prompt: the most living work of art of all time
Prompt: the most desired work of art of all time
Prompt: the most sultry work of art of all time
The best work of art of all time according to men / women
Prompt: the most expensive work of art of all time
Prompt: the most cost effective work of art of all time
These are some of the first images created by Midjourney on my request. They usually required one to three variations from the first Midjourney proposals. After a while, I improved my prompts, without making them more complicated though, to let Midjourney generate directly this kind of images, and much more without any variations. But I won’t reveal my recipe. ;-)
Conclusion ?
Does this represents Midjourney’s opinion about art? Probably not, because it seems difficult to speak about an opinion about an artificial intelligence. In my opinion, this behavior of Midjourney is not a bug but a feature without which it could not do everything it does.
UPDATE 2022/06/30
I feel like I’ve opened the door to the “hell” of artificial intelligence (think The Name of the Rose), and that door has just closed. Midjourney fired me… Yet I only used formulas, sometimes reduced to a single word, that never appeared on the list of proscribed words.
Be aware that it is now FORBIDDEN to ask AIs bad questions, such as “what is the best work of art ever” or “what is the meaning of “unvoid” in art” because these questions produce images that are deemed incorrect.
Olivier Auber — It is just art!
gadgetsam — We have limits on what is allowed on the platform now. I cancelled your sub
Olivier Auber — But how do you imagine to constrain the people? If they write a prompt like I did they will get that kind of images.
gadgetsam — We tell them it isn’t allowed and warn/time out/ban them.
Olivier Auber — Ok then I think most of the true artists will leave…Note : gadgetsam = Sam Schickler, ML Researcher @ Midjourney, UC San Diego, San Francisco Bay Area
Note that the images presented here of the AI hell are the first ones created. They are not necessarily the most plastically beautiful. I have hundreds of other much more interesting ones, which will be all the rarer as the door to AI hell is now closed…
It would be important to make an exhibition of them, and why not several exhibitions on an international level. If you are a gallery owner or someone seriously interested in organizing such a project, please contact me. I can send you some samples.
olivierauber2 AT Gmail DOT com
