More fun with AI

Is AI getting better?

You may remember that I’ve played with AI art before. I was … not impressed. I was very not impressed. As in “what Lovecraftian nightmare BS is this?” Over the weekend, on a whim, I decided, well, what if we gave Artificial Intelligence a head start? What if we help it cheat? You know, before we throw it out of the nest to its doom down below?

Since my Love at First Bite series is now totally under my control again, I’ve figured, eh, let’s do something with that.

I’m going to put together an Omnibus edition eventually. So I should have some art for that.

My usual cover artist—my wife—is busy.

So let’s see if Genuine Stupidity can do … anything.

I decided to start with book one, Honor at Stake, now only $0.99, so have you bought it yet?

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This is the original cover, as done by Steve Beaulieu.

I always liked it. I always wanted more from it, but you can’t have everything, right?

So I told Grok to simply improve it. I mean, Grok can’t screw that up, can it? (Sure it can, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.)

Survey says:

Grok … changed the lighting. That’s all it did. It may have improved the textures of the street? And it may have made the background more photorealistic?

Is it a visible improvement? I guess. My wife seems to think so.

Okay. Fine. Let’s see if we can improve … something. Change something.

This is a photo of Julia Zabolotnikova, alias Julia Kova. She is a Russian singer. And while I literally had the image of a college classmate for Amanda, this is as spot on as I can figure.

So I gave this image to Grok and said, “Swap about the woman in the cover for the woman shown here. See if you can include her hair.”

Yes, I liked her hair. Shut up.

What’s the end result here?

This was the result…

Okay.

Kinda.

Sorta.

Maybe.

Grok hasn’t screw up anything yet.

How about we make it look like, I don’t know, actual New York? Can we do that?

Okay. it doesn’t suck.

We will ignore putting the Chrysler building almost on top of the Empire State Building. It followed instructions.

And you will notice I am very much ignoring the signage in the background, that is clearly not in English.

But I’m tired of this pseudo-sepia filters. No, really, why is it in every freaking movie?

How about we go back to the original blue-green tint?

Now, let’s fix the signs.

Yes, the Apollo theater and Ratner’s Jewish restaurant are on two different sides of Manhattan, but who’s going to tell, huh?

Now, add an explosion in the background…It works for Harry Dresden covers.

Huh.

Well.

That’s … something. And it covers up the problem of the Chrysler building being on the wrong part of the island.

I have noticed that, as this goes along, the “Best horror” label becomes more and more difficult to read. So that’s … interesting. I’m not sure why, but it’s interesting.

Let’s see if we can actually make Marco blond for once.

I … ai yai yai.

I’m not sure that works very well. By “well” I mean “not at all.”

Look at the progression of images. Start at the top, and work down. Is it just me? Or is the cover looking more filtered the more I tinker with it?

Let’s quit while we’re behind on Honor at Stake.

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Demons are Forever

I’m a little afraid to look at book two. Because this is the original cover:

How does Grok “improve” it?”

Again, I’m not even sure that’s an improvement.

Let’s skip ahead a few steps so we don’t do a dozen images like above. Let’s see if Grok will break or if it can walk and chew gum at the same time.

I tell Grok: “Make the background look like San Francisco on the water. And Replace the woman’s face with this woman.”

“This woman” being Julia Kova, pictured above.

And what do I get…?

I don’t know. Is that at all an improvement? I’m genuinely asking you.

I know I’m going to regret this but…

“Make this hair dark blond.”

Brace for impact.

Let’s not and say we didn’t, shall we?

No, no explosions in this one. I’m not sure where we’d put them. Not on the water. And if we added fire to the city, will it even be San Francisco anymore? It barely looks like San Francisco as it is.

Now that we have this … mostly fixed … shall we attempt #3?

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Live and Let Bite.

That’s … okay…

Let’s do our face swap. I think the background vaguely suggests New York.

Well, Grok followed instructions. I won’t fault it that much.

Am I happy that she’s looking at the camera and not at him? Not at all.

Also, why does she no longer have a turtleneck underneath the leather jacket? Why is she topless now? Is Grok perving on her? Because that was NOT in my instructions, which were simply “Improve this.”

Also, why are the hands on her outer hip changed? How is this an improvement?

So, I tell grok to have her look at him. And add an explosion. Because it worked in the first one.

Okay. Overall, not bad.

This might actually be an overall improvement.

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Good to the Last Drop

Book four?

First, the general “Improve this.”

I don’t think it did … anything. Not a thing. Okay. Fine. Let’s see if it can do something complicated.

I suspect Grok is about to keel over.

This is the original self-published cover for Honor at Stake. I like the background image—I took it myself.

Prompt: Take the background from this cover, and replace the background. Then, replace the woman with this one [Julia Kova], facing the man.

Huh. It worked.

And I didn’t break Grok.

Color me surprised.

At the end of the day … No, I don’t really know what I think of all this. Some of the images look more pixelated the longer I look at them.

Am I saying that these are the new covers? Hell flipping no. I’m not even entirely certain I like them. Or all of them.

I do find it interesting that Grok can work with established images … but if Grok needs a finished product to modify, THEN WHAT GOOD IS IT?

What do you think? Do you like them? Hate them? Think I need to kill it all with fire?

Have you bought, read and reviewed this series yet? Let me know that too.

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As usual: ask me anything in the comments.

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Remember: buy a book or leave a book review. Either one helps me sleep at night.

As we know, disarming civilians doesn’t mean you’re against guns. No. That means you have someone else hold your gun for you, and you’re dialing 911 and hoping that