AI Hedgehogs and managing my fears | Part 1 | Unemployment Diaries
Hello there. I’ve been unemployed for about eight months now and decided to pick up a creative hobby. Writing seemed like a good choice. Documenting this phase of my life feels important to me. This way, when I do land a job, I’ll have these memories to look back on — memories of exploring various interests while others were busy working.
I’ve decided to write these unemployment diaries weekly. My goal is to share with my employed friends what life is like on this side of the fence. I’ll be delving into the realms of technology, books, the internet, and life in general during your working hours. I hope you find it enjoyable. Feel free to leave a comment or suggest a fun activity I could try. A “fun activity” can be subjective experience, yes I am aware of that.
Visual AI is scaring me (But in a good way!)
This week, I've been experimenting extensively with AI tools focused on image and video generation. Below is a hedgehog image I created using leonardo.ai.
leonardo.ai's Leonardo Diffusion XL model really shows how anyone can do great things as long as you can generate good prompts (Check community works — they have listed their prompts and let me tell you, those people can generate great prompts!). However, what really amazed me was their Real Time Canvas update. Just play around with it here. It still needs some work, but the future is here.
Ok, the next thing I tested out was Runway's new feature — ability to create a video from an image. What????? See how I turned my AI generated hedgehog into a short video. I wanted to animate the water and background, and add a slight smile and ear movement to the hedgehog. The model didn’t quite bring the hedgehog to life, but it did add some dynamism to the water and background, as you can see here:
What I appreciate about this Runway feature is the control it offers over camera movement and specific detail alterations. Here’s the editor of elements I wanted to animate. It seems the model assumed my hedgehog was already lively and didn’t need additional movement:
Oh well. I’ve been sending these AI creations to friends, and the only two reactions I’ve received are “Why a hedgehog?” and “I think AI will take my job in a few years.” Great crowd.
I hate ChatGPT
It has gotten worse. I’m currently paying $20/month for it, and it often feels sluggish and unresponsive. I feel like my brain is on fire whenever I try to work with it. However, I gave Google’s Bard a try and it seems I might switch to it for my side-project needs, as it is more appropriate with technical responses. And then, an exciting announcement from Google came — they’re launching their Gemini AI model soon! They’ve already been integrating the Gemini Pro model in Bard. Which might explain why Bard has been working like a charm (Contrary to ChatGPT).
In other (Not tech) related news
While browsing through Instagram, I stumbled upon a quote that lingered in my mind for several days:
To become spring, means accepting the risk of winter. To become presence, means accepting the risk of absence.
This quote comes from “The Little Prince,” a timeless classic. Not the first time I've heard this quote. But for some reason, it really resonated with me this time. Consequently, I watched “The Little Prince” movie. If you’re in the mood for a film that will make you tear up at least three times, I highly recommend it.
Additionally, this week I delved into Matthew McConaughey’s book “Greenlights.” It was a quick and engaging read. Although I’ve never been particularly interested in McConaughey as an actor, his travel stories were surprisingly inspiring. They motivated me to embrace more experiences and fear failure less. And this might be the reason why are you even reading this. More action, less thoughts of ways how I will fail. Greenlight.
I hope you enjoyed this quick read of my diary. Feel free to leave your thoughts, comments and suggestions. I hope you have a great next week!
