Diffusions in Architecture: Artificial Intelligence and Image Generators
by Matias del Campo, Lev Manovich
An Artificial Tale
Ryan Vincent Manning
The first artificial intelligence (AIs), the artificial precursors, appeared here and there via small exclusive groups, where they attracted academics, game enthusiasts, and artists. The pixel‐to‐pixel and image transfers, witnessed only by a handful of outsiders, were dismissed as computational follies. Even early news reports did not quite know what tone to take, shifting reluctantly from technical descriptions to ironic jests with armored skepticism. Processing power was restricted due to a lack of universal blockchain and optical schematics. Databases requiring large amounts of data only producing moderate results, were limited to research grants and aerospace institutes. The do‐it‐yourself databases were hampered by their size, as generating sufficient data was a laborious task. Web scraping, a method of data collection, whirled around misuse of data, such as polarized politics contorting Pokémon morphologies. One could only collect so many planes, trains, and automobiles before the pot would run dry. Practitioners could gather data only in the thousands, while millions were needed.
At this time, according to Sir Rehms, AIs were more widespread than initially believed. The relentless tides of capitalism, neo‐liberal‐accelerated science, gradually smacked us with their proverbial hand. In the first wave, lockdowns, social stops occurred. WP I or world pandemic one, as we call it today. The draining social aptitude propelled attentions ...