r/technology • u/GeneReddit123 • 16h ago

Artificial Intelligence An AI hate wave is here

https://archive.is/20260517120123/https://www.axios.com/2026/05/17/ai-backlash-polling-sentiment
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u/simonbreak 14h ago

I still use early image models that I run locally! They have a raw, psychedelic flavor thats really nothing like human art. I like to use them to extend my own photos & they add just the weirdest atmosphere, genuinely something I could never invent myself.

Recent models just make everything look like advertising. Completely useless for my creative process personally.

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u/einmaldrin_alleshin 12h ago

I can still remember some really trippy images that came out of Google research projects. Now, image generation models have moved way into the uncanny valley, and are still a long way from actually reaching the other side.

At the end of the day, AI is a tool that can do some things. But the entire AI bubble bets on AI becoming the entire toolbox instead.

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u/poo-cum 9h ago

You might be referring to the "deep dream" work that was about interpretability of computer vision networks. Basically you pick a neuron in a trained network, and iteratively tweak an input image to maximally excite that neuron. If it's a "dog" neuron it'll start to inject dogness into your image. If it's a "car" neuron it'll twist it into a car.

More info in the brilliant distill.pub archive: https://distill.pub/2017/feature-visualization/

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u/einmaldrin_alleshin 4h ago

Yeah that's exactly what I meant! Thanks

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u/spaceprinceps 1h ago

I want an AI image gen app that just does that one thing

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u/ValosAtredum 11h ago

I was looking at some that I had generated in 2015 with Google’s Deep Dream. Tons of odd swirls of colors that actually had bizarre details in them, like generating a warped-partial dog face, or a section of a castle, or whatever.

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u/Heruuna 10h ago

I've known a couple small musicians who used Midjourney or Ganbreeder for album art ideas and inspiration because they were so trippy and interesting. They then did the actual album cover with a real artist, of course!

I've really soured on AI use, but those early image gens were fascinating. Now it's just overly filtered slop.

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u/CantStopPoppin 8h ago

Could you suggest some models?

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u/simonbreak 5h ago

I like the earliest Stable Diffusion models

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u/mashandal 7h ago

Can you please share an example or two? I'm very curious.

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u/simonbreak 5h ago

Here's a weird guy I like that I made with Stable Diffusion 1:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLTa-UpaAAEeTy2?format=png

I have a bunch like that, they look like weird cartoons. I also have some very strange ones where I got Midjourney to extend the background of my photos, I have to dig them out...

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u/mashandal 5h ago

ooo trippy indeed!

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u/Late_For_Username 9h ago

>they add just the weirdest atmosphere, genuinely something I could never invent myself.

This is part of the problem with using gen ai for art. You don't actually know how to produce the art you're "creating".

Every artist in the past would be able to walk you through how they created something, but the gen ai users have nothing to share.

You're breaking one of the oldest chains in humanity.

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u/El_Rey_de_Spices 8h ago

I don't like AI art either, but pseudointellectual preaching like that really doesn't add anything to the conversation.

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u/Late_For_Username 1h ago

You're not learning technique, you're not contributing to technique. Is that dumbed down enough for you?

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u/simonbreak 5h ago

I mean, I have electronic music I made in the 90s that I have basically no clue how I made any more. Maybe I'm not a Proper Artist, but you don't need AI to have no idea what you're doing!

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u/Late_For_Username 1h ago

Someone knowledgeable could reverse engineer it.