In the time since we last spoke, things have happened at breakneck speed. Mj V5, GPT4, the famous letter, Italy banning GPT, and the infamous Trump arrest photos - which would go on to become a reality - and then, there was the very dope pope pic. I also got pulled into my first corporate “AI ethics” meeting.
As I’ve gotten sucked into the tech and Discord/Twitter communities more and more, I’ve found so many interesting people and voices — from seasoned tech journos to Computational Linguistics professors, to newfound creative voices quickly gaining a reputation and helping share the community. I’ll share a few names and links here a bit further down the post.
I’ve been struck by how giving the AI community can be, in sharing their learnings. So I made a few personal commitments: The first being to study AI academically, starting with GPT and MJ, to bestow a lot more value to the community, instead of tinkering and groping around in exploration mode. Exploration continues, I just intend to be significantly more equipped.
We’re riding this wave together folks, buckle up.
As i write this, it’s Easter. I love all of the life lessons that the story of Easter teaches even if you happen to be non-christian. I always admired how Jesus managed to remain calm in the face of betrayal. This got me tinkering with what a gangster Jesus Christ (as he’s traditionally represented) would look like. I must mention that I probed MJ for a Jesus of African descent but I wasn’t impressed.
I abandoned that and focused on nailing the parameters I was looking … et voila.
I liked this because there’s still a sense of a gentle Jesus within a subtle gangsta. I was struck by the buff look - I didn’t request it. This was my first generation. I borrowed photography cues from the famous Pope generation.
But i wanted to see what a less forgiving Jesus would look like. So on we go.
You can still see the lamb, but there’s more Lion - if you know what I mean. I liked that it kept the general resemblance and it also appears you can’t be gangsta without being buff according to MJ. He who has ears, let them hear.
And then I just let loose, feeding MJ with different cues. I wanted to see how gangsta we could get and what themes would show up, without straying too far from this look. I started introducing the calvary element into prompts because MJ was giving me a lot of street/warehouse-type backdrops.
Now we’re on to something. I hated the flaw in the chains at first, but i figured a gangster saviour is allowed to wear whatever they like. That may just be the new insert-luxury-jeweler-brand-name-here “Satchel-Chain”. Don’t be a fashion philistine.
Then I think I overdid it with the 3D hyperrealism combo because it looked like I was getting into game character territory as you can see here.
So I backtracked on the 3D/UHD. I was looking for the most realistic semblance of an unforgiving Jesus I could find.
I think found it.
This dude’s hard. There’s an Ice-T element there. Just me? The chains were rendered better, the lighting was good, and the look into the distance sealed it. Even the pseudo-orthodox-looking cross was brilliant. Thoughts?
Anyways, I called it a night after that. Did I mention Drip Jesus got featured by an Ad agency in Ghana for some Easter work? So there’s that.
As promised though, here’s a list of a few amazing people I connected with over the last week:
Seyhan Lee: Amazing human. Sat in a session with her and her sentiments resonated deeply. AI is just a tool. Without you, it’s as good as any dormant hammer in your shed.
Kris Kashtanova: Kris’ Twitter profile has gone from below 10K when i followed her to 29k in under 2 weeks. She’s a fantastic sharer of work and people doing exceptional work in ai. She played some sort of role in Adobe Firefly and has promised to share more about interesting projects and research she’s doing.
Robert Scoble: Because he’s the Robert Scoble! I respect his approach to AI and you will too if you’re familiar with his tech track. Also, he and I got into a conversation about whether AI would replace designers and honestly, that was just amazing for me.
Atelier: Not everyone needs to have 5k followers to be relevant. Atelier is one of them. He’s a digital artist who inspired the woman in the water piece on my Instagram. Check him out for all-in inspiration.
And then you can find me on Twitter as well.
Here’s the piece from Bloom Interactive, ft Drip Jesus.
Until next time,
Spyda.
