AI

I am not a fan of AI in any form and the most recent news that it could wipe us out within the next ten years fills me with some despondency, but I cannot help feel that sadly it is here to stay.

Where I worry most is that books will be produced from harvested information online without being fact checked or verified and that original images will be manipulated so that in a generations time, nobody will know what is original and what is fake. The technology is getting so good now that sooner or later, unless you have a forensic knowledge of the subject and can spot the details, no-one will be able to tell what is original and what is AI generated.

It’s because of that reason that I scarcely post any images on social media these days as I fear for them being garnered into some massive ‘hive’ to be stored, manipulated and used at a later date for all manner of purposes.

I’m not jumping onto the AI bandwagon. I like my photographs as they were - in black and white, and I enjoy visiting archives and seeking out dusky old books and papers with first-hand accounts, but I thought however that I would just dip my toe in the water (so to speak) to see what it could be achieved under controlled conditions.

Using my social media profile picture as a test, I asked AI to make the legendary photograph of Cpl. Don Mowle, taken at Geijsteren in December 1944, into a cartoon and it came up with the image below.

I have to admit that it is quite quirky, though he’s a bit too tanned and a bit too ‘Roy Lichtenstein’ Pop Art looking for my liking (though Don did serve in Burma with Second Suffolk before he was sent home to serve with 1 Suffolk in Europe).

The main reason is that I have long had a wish to write a kids book based on a box of letters I have from a Suffolk Regiment soldier to his wife. The couple were very much in love and corresponded almost every other day during the NW Europe campaign and I wanted to see what sort of a character could be created, as ultimately if it got into print, the reader would need to associate with the letter writer throughout the story and a Don Mowle-esque soldier is what I am looking for; an example of the typical Suffolk ‘Tommy’ fighting through so he could go home to his wife as soon as possible.

It’s not there yet as I would like him to be a little more hand drawn rather than a comic strip (and smoking would be a ‘no-no’ in a kids book!) but it’s getting there…..