WHEN AI FAILS

Not everything goes right when I animate the glass negative photos

If you’ve been following this blog, you’ve not only seen some amazing photos from my glass negative collection, but you’ve also seen the AI animations I’ve created of them. They are silly, fun and occasionally disturbing. But AI can also be way off target,too. It often doesn’t interpret the directions I give it correctly or at all. Like a toddler, it will go off and do its own thing. Here are some examples.

George & The Cats

This photo was taken in New Hanover Square, PA on August 25, 1911. (FYI: that’s just 4 days after the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre in Paris, if any of you follow my other blog. https//monalisamissing.substack.com)

In this photo, we see a man named George holding cats with a mysterious woman crouching behind him. I gave AI the command for the cats to crawl away, for the woman to stand up so we can see her, and for George to take off his hat.

The woman does stand, but one cat simply vanishes as the other magically passes through George’s leg. George then pulls a fedora out of thin air while the straw hat on his head shrinks down to zero.

I decided on a different tactic. I told AI to have the woman come out behind the chair and kiss George. Didn’t quite get that right.

I figured that was too much for AI to handle, so I told it to just have the woman come out from behind the chair.

Wrong again. So I tried once more. This time it worked, sort of.

So she doesn’t have the right hairstyle or clothes for 1910, but I’ll take it as a win.

AI is fun, but it gets to be expensive since I have to subscribe to several sites to do these. I hope to underwrite the costs of these subscriptions by getting some paid subscribers. As a paid subscriber, you will get all my content but also these special posts about my AI fails. In the weeks to come, I’ll also be posting behind-the-scenes videos about how I am cataloguing and preserving these glass plates.

Here are some photos I already have hilarious fails for, which you will get if you subscribe.

I try to make the mule and rider gallop away.

I demolish the hotel.

And in a very macabre scene, I ask AI to have the deceased come alive.

It would be wonderful to have you as a paid subscriber. Your donation would go a long way to helping me preserve and care for these treasured images from the past. Thanks.