Dhamma Art by AI - Wow

Well, the most striking image in the poem is of course Subha pulling out her eye, so I have tried a few variations with that. One in more a painting style and one more realistic. I am new to this, so still experimenting. :sweat_smile:

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First of all, congratulations Ajahn @nisabhobhikkhu :pray:t4: :pray:t4: :pray:t4: and hello everyone.

Having made a living off arts & crafts for over 3 decades, thought I’d bring in some food for thought on the subject (sorry :sweat_smile:):

"Artists say AI-image generators are copying their style to make thousands of new images — and it’s completely out of their control

AI-image generators are becoming increasingly accessible. OpenAI, an artificial intelligence company founded by Elon Musk, recently made its DALL-E image generator open to the public. Artists say some users are using these generators to create thousands of images in their style.

Greg Rutkowski (@GrzegorzRutko14) is an artist with a distinctive style, known for creating fantasy scenes of dragons and epic battles.

Rutkowski has now become one of the most popular names in AI art, despite never having used the technology himself.

Rutkowski’s name has been used to generate around 93,000 AI images on Stable Diffusion, an AI-image generator, which creates original artwork in minutes or even seconds after a user types in a few words as directions."

I do, for example, use digital tools to create some of my wall art, so, not a purist. All technology was once new technology. Tools are tools.

The AI generated images are indeed very gorgeous… but are they wholesome? this mining of created work without consent - no probs with the 2nd precept? :thinking:

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Thank you for the warm words, @Pat_G ! Those are beautifully-considered points, and important, I think. Perhaps there’s room to input chiefly styles of the older artists whose work is public domain. For example, some of the above reference the style of Gustave Moreau and Gustav Klimt, both painters who have been dead over a century, and I don’t believe any of the referenced styles involve current painters. However, I hadn’t considered this realm of sila before, and, as AI begins to make inroads into creative vistas formerly reserved for the human spirit, I think we will have to look at just the issues you brought up. Thank you!

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Thank you, Venerable :pray:t4: such a gracious reply. Very interesting points!

Curiosity got the better of me and I thought I would have a go at DALL-E myself.
I went with Subha in Jivaka’s mango grove
DALL-E doesn’t do gore, so I couldn’t get it to generate the eyeball and Subha in the same image. So I took the AI images into photoshop and did things the old fashioned way.

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Hi Friend! Thank you for your patience. I haven’t tried with the quote you shared yet, I’ll give it a try today, but I did make this image about Two Monks Meditating together as an expression of spiritual friendship! Styled it like a Renaissance Painting! Be Well.

“Kalyana Mitra”

A.I. prompt: Bright Silver Full Moon Leonardo Da Vinci Renaissance Mountains Lake Landscape Painting Highly Detailed Two Buddhist Monks Meditating Kalyana Mitra Spiritual Friendship

:blush::pray:

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Hi there! Thank you for sharing.:relieved::pray:
@nisabhobhikkhu made a great point I personally haven’t used the name of any living artist for what I’ve shared with the Sangha. I did use a living artists name to give an image to my friend who adores his work but in retrospect it felt the equivalent to making fan art, and to show I care about what my friend likes, that if I could buy him a real piece of that artists work I would. :blush::heart_hands:

I read the link you shared and I didn’t know that people were making money off the styles of living artists. I can see how that could be a cause for frustration.

As for the 2nd Precept comment… that got me worried… but reading the article again clarified the issue. The A.I. only mimics the styles of images it finds available on the internet it doesn’t use them directly.

When in doubt I look to someone like Ajahn Geoff as an example. He has used the example in his teachings of the monk being admonished by a deva for stealing the scent of a flower by smelling it. Considering that all his book-covers are made with images he photographs himself and considering he himself is such a strict practitioner, I trust that mimicking the likeness of an object, which a photograph does using light, isn’t considered stealing. I’m confident the many Ajahns on this site will correct me of any errors in my words out of compassion. Please forgive me for any mistakes. :relieved::pray:

My intention with these images is to play as if I were a Deva in “The Heaven of Those Who Delight In Creation” those who can manifest whatever they desire at will, including impossible images of artists long past and rain down those ethereal flowers on the heads of those who have practiced well. :blush::pray:

“Ethereal” being the key word. Of course these images are ultimately little empty things in themselves, like a golden tree in a dream, but as vessels of goodwill they are the water pots that carry the streams of gratitude I have for the Triple Gem, overflowing from a fountain of appreciation in my heart. What I struggle and fail so often to say with words, I can finally express with images.

I think the key lies in intention. For those with little outer wealth these A.I. Generators could be Fantastic tools to express the abundant inner wealth found in the practice of Dhamma. :blush::pray:

May you share in all the blessings my friend.
:blush::pray::fountain::bucket::pray::blush:

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Hi Pasanna! Thank you for your patience! I really truly appreciated and enjoyed working with your suggestions very much! :smile::pray:

Here is the first image! I just straight up used the direct passage without embellishment for this one and that felt good.

I’ll share the other two from the suttas you shared when they’re ready soon.

I really appreciate those short suttas where you can put the whole thing in the prompt at once! That was a really fun idea. Thank you for inspiring me. If you have any other suggestions please feel free to share.

I call this one:

The Abode of Hermits

A.I. Prompts: The rain comes down on the lovely flats, in the mountains frequented by hermits. Echoing with the cries of peacocks, these rocky crags delight me!

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An interesting mix of geology here. Looks British Isles in the foreground and Southern China in the background to me…

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Interesting observation Venerable Sir. Thought the monks might particularly appreciate the image of the lone tree. :blush::pray::deciduous_tree:

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A Golden Tree Seen In A Dream

A.I. Prompt: Edvard Munch Buddhist Nun is a golden tree seen in a dream

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Dear Joseph,

With much gratitude I found your mail in my mailbox with this very friendly message and inspiring picture of the two monks, meditating side by side as true kalyanamitta’s. Sincere appreciation for your effort, time and sharing of these Dhamma creations for inspiring the heart.

With much kindness,
Dayā

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For me, this is sort of the crux of the matter. In order for an AI art generator to “learn,” it needs a corpus of images. Just like a person, it’s possible for a computer program to copy, and it’s also possible for it to learn from existing things, and express something largely new (i.e., that does not incorporate the original work). But some of that depends on what algorithms are being used.

There will probably be some legal challenges to AI art, and there may be some copyright rulings that clarify how AI art can be classified, i.e., as a derivative work, or as an original work, and criteria for that. In the meantime, people are more or less trusting that certain systems have algorithms that aren’t doing anything too shady.

In the long term, these systems may become very common, and we may have simple and free ways to generate some types of art. That would be pretty neat, and it could give many people access to have new art created for them, who previously could not afford that, or were not able to find artists.

Some screen wallpapers:


Prompt: Theravada monk, smiling, professional color grading, soft shadows, no contrast, clean sharp focus, film photography


Prompt: gilded, shining buddha, meditating , green jungle , peace, beautiful sunrise, 8k, realistic


Prompt: HUGE, frontal, shining, bright, gilded, wheel of dharma with eight spokes, there is a blue and soft gradiant background, professional color grading, soft shadows, no contrast, clean sharp focus, film photography

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