* { font-family: Voltaire!important;}

Sunday 24 March 2024

The James Bond AI Challenge - Part Five

Yes, here we go for the fifth - and last part of our AI Bondy-Challengy thing. Y. We started at the beginning with 'Dr.No' and we'll end with the not at all controversial 'No Time To Die'. As we speak - or rather type, rumors are flying around of a new Actor to fill the role, so hopefully we won't have to wait too long before a fresh movie comes along we can all love/hate/both! 


And yes, we noticed the AI stuck a weird '70' on there. We would have edited out, but when we asked him, VC just blinked at us and went back to sleep... Ah well!

We made it! This was mainly an exercise to try our hand at AI - Microsoft's Bing/Co-Pilot was variously a joy and a nightmare to work with - literally refusing to produce images of Daniel Craig, yet input 'James Bond' and you get... Daniel Craig. Well, that's Microsoft all over - great ideas, often atrociously implemented. But! We'd still say their AI is one of the very best, along with Midjourney - and you get 15 free credits per day with an account, plus you get points which you can put towards gift cards etc (Though not, as yet towards getting extra images on Co-Pilot, which is Microsoft  being Microsoft) You aren't limited to 15 creds worth of images, but when you run out, generation is slower. So that's you told. Come back and see us soon, we have no clue what we'll have for you WONDERFUL people, but it WILL be worth it, we hope!

Friday 15 March 2024

The James Bond AI Challenge - Part Four

Dan dan-dan-dan DANNN! Yes, off we go with Part Four of the Bond AI Challenge - we knew you were expecting us (But not to talk, so let's get on with it...)


Well, that brings us to the end of the Brosnan Bonds; The BMW Bond was a bit of a smoothie in a suit for some, but even the haters can't deny finding all the Easter Eggs in 'Die Another Day' (2002) was ENORMOUS fun! Stay Tuned - Or just come back soon as we end our journey with the Daniel Craig era. So no controversy there...




 
 

Sunday 3 March 2024

The James Bond AI Challenge - Part Three


Here we go again with Part Three - beginning with 'Moonraker'. Animated - as if you hadn't guessed, using AI. 





This brings us up to the Timothy Dalton Era - Sadly consisting of only two movies... We'll be back soon with Part Four, as soon as our Licence To Kill is renewed!

Wednesday 21 February 2024

The James Bond AI Challenge - Part Two


Yes, it's Part Two; the bit between parts One and, well, never mind the technical stuff! Here we go with... On Her Majesty's Secret Service





Ok, we cheated a bit on this one; the text was added later, using 'Gimp'. Make of that what you will; again, these were the best of a variable bunch - If you think AI's easy, just try getting it to understand "a gun made from a pen, a cigarette lighter and a cigarette case..." Part Three will be with us with the inevitability of an unloved season. Which means 'soon'.


Wednesday 14 February 2024

The James Bond AI Challenge - Part One


Yes, your favourite Volcano-dwelling feline has discovered... AI. When he discovered Arty-Fishal Intelligence wasn't  about actual fish, well - never mind that, the challenge? Could we, Volcano Cat asked, use this AI to produce alternative images for every  'official' Bond movie? It sounded easy enough; we went with Microsoft's 'Bing' (Now called Copilot, possibly the worst name since 'Bing') because A: It's there and B: We're too cheap to spring for Midjourney. And we're posting the results of our labor in several instalments. Because we can. Was the challenge easy? No; as the more up to date among you will know, to get an AI program/app/thingummibob to generate an image, you need to feed it a 'prompt'. Like commissioning a Human artist, you have to ask for what you need. And 'Copilot' is EXTREMELY edgy regards 'unsafe content'. I mean, it's not like we asked for nudes of Roger Moore - (Ok, just that one time)  but enter 'bullet holes' for instance and Copilot is not a happy AI. So, 'identically shaped small holes' it was. And so forth; even the names of actual Actors are a no-no, but the input 'James Bond' gets you Daniel Craig. To say this was the hardest part of VC's AI Challenge is putting it mildly... But we're not quitters, so here's Part One!



That's our first five; we're not happy with 'Goldfinger' to be brutally honest (Or honestly brutal) , but these are our pick from MANY images we exhorted, persuaded, extorted Copilot to produce. And - of course, we made sure a certain Angora cat featured. If you think VC looks grumpy in this? You should have seen some of the others... Look out for Part Two soon!