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Generative Fill Test Drive
31 May 2023
We took Russell Preston Brown's advice and downloaded Photoshop beta with Generative Fill. Downloads are about the only thing that aren't faster on the MacBook Pro M2 we've been using for a little over a week now.
In Tandem. Test driving Generative Fill.
He had so much fun turning a lariat into spaghetti that after we finally got our PHP/MySQL software running on the M2 natively, we rewarded ourselves by asking Photoshop to add a tandem bicycle to our image.
You know, a bicycle built for two. A tandem.
Well, it's been that kind of week. PHP kept losing variables and MySQL complained about syntax errors when it was really missing that data and we kept going in circles sure that what had been working for years and years was actually correct.
So why should Generative Fill have done what we asked?
Instead of a tandem, it produced two bikes in tandem, as you can see.
To give credit where it's due, it did lay down the shadows appropriately. And the scale is correct.
But in one of those brilliant demonstrations of the power of artificial intelligence (and why it may herald the end of our species), it sent them the wrong way on the road. Despite the bike lane arrow pointing in the opposite direction.
Kind of like those self-driving vehicles we see around here all the time that stop for leaves falling and pause for refreshments at stop signs.
Maybe it was us. We tried to be a little more specific, using the colloquial description of a "bicycle built for two." That, as you can see, was even worse.
Second Try. We tried 'bicycle built for two,' like the song says. Generative Fill took a break.
Maybe we were being a little too demanding, we thought. So we tried going back to an earlier era and asked for a "horse and buggy."
Third Try. Obviously Generative Fill needs some direction.
We had a little better luck with direction when we changed our selection to include the cars going the other way across the meridian strip.
A Different Direction. Including a hint in the selection made a difference.
But oddly enough that eliminated the cars that were the clue. And we would have expected some motion blur. We didn't select the blurred car in front for this attempt but when we tried that, the sailboat didn't keep its distance. Crash.
As a test drive, we have to say it's fun. Nearly fatal but fun.