Did Tim Cook Post AI Slop in His Christmas Message Promoting 'Pluribus'? (daringfireball.net) 23
Artist Keith Thomson is a modern (and whimsical) Edward Hopper. And Apple TV says he created the "festive artwork" shared on X by Apple CEO Tim Cook on Christmas Eve, "made on MacBook Pro."
Its intentionally-off picture of milk and cookies was meant to tease the season finale of Pluribus. ("Merry Christmas Eve, Carol..." Cook had posted.)
But others were convinced that the weird image was AI-generated.
Tech blogger John Gruber was blunt. "Tim Cook posts AI Slop in Christmas message on Twitter/X, ostensibly to promote 'Pluribus'." As for sloppy details, the carton is labeled both "Whole Milk" and "Lowfat Milk", and the "Cow Fun Puzzle" maze is just goofily wrong. (I can't recall ever seeing a puzzle of any kind on a milk carton, because they're waxy and hard to write on. It's like a conflation of milk cartons and cereal boxes.)
Tech author Ben Kamens — who just days earlier had blogged about generating mazes with AI — said the image showed the "specific quirks" of generative AI mazes (including the way the maze couldn't be solved, expect by going around the maze altogether). Former Google Ventures partner M.G. Siegler even wondered if AI use intentionally echoed the themes of Pluribus — e.g., the creepiness of a collective intelligence — since otherwise "this seems far too obvious to be a mistake/blunder on Apple's part." (Someone on Reddit pointed out that in Pluribus's dystopian world, milk plays a key role — and the open spout of the "natural" milk's carton does touch a suspiciously-shining light on the Christmas tree...)
Slashdot contacted artist Keith Thomson to try to ascertain what happened...
Its intentionally-off picture of milk and cookies was meant to tease the season finale of Pluribus. ("Merry Christmas Eve, Carol..." Cook had posted.)
But others were convinced that the weird image was AI-generated.
Tech blogger John Gruber was blunt. "Tim Cook posts AI Slop in Christmas message on Twitter/X, ostensibly to promote 'Pluribus'." As for sloppy details, the carton is labeled both "Whole Milk" and "Lowfat Milk", and the "Cow Fun Puzzle" maze is just goofily wrong. (I can't recall ever seeing a puzzle of any kind on a milk carton, because they're waxy and hard to write on. It's like a conflation of milk cartons and cereal boxes.)
Tech author Ben Kamens — who just days earlier had blogged about generating mazes with AI — said the image showed the "specific quirks" of generative AI mazes (including the way the maze couldn't be solved, expect by going around the maze altogether). Former Google Ventures partner M.G. Siegler even wondered if AI use intentionally echoed the themes of Pluribus — e.g., the creepiness of a collective intelligence — since otherwise "this seems far too obvious to be a mistake/blunder on Apple's part." (Someone on Reddit pointed out that in Pluribus's dystopian world, milk plays a key role — and the open spout of the "natural" milk's carton does touch a suspiciously-shining light on the Christmas tree...)
Slashdot contacted artist Keith Thomson to try to ascertain what happened...
Slashdot: I just wanted to confirm that that's your work... If it is your work, can you say anything about what software you used when creating the image?
Thomson: I'm unable to comment on specific client projects. In general, I always draw and paint by hand and sometimes incorporate standard digital tools.
The blog Piunikaweb got a nearly identical response when contacting Thomson about whether the image was AI-generated. (Thomson said in response that they "always draw by hand and sometimes incorporate standard digital tools.")
"They, however, didn't comment on the artwork commissioned by Tim Cook specifically. So make of that what you may....
"The irony here is pretty rich," added Piunikaweb. "While Cook was getting dragged for posting human-made art, Google CEO Sundar Pichai openly shared an AI-generated snow globe image complete with a visible Gemini watermark on December 25. His post just said 'Merry Christmas! Wishing you a joyful holiday with friends and family,' and the replies were overwhelmingly positive."
Did Tim Cook Post? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
No doubt. Who really gives a shit if it was AI generated.
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No doubt. Who really gives a shit if it was AI generated.
Lots of people, apparently. It seems the question of AI slop creates a big buzz and free publicity.
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Have you seen the image in question? Clearly gen AI, or as Thomson no doubt thinks of it, "standard digital tools."
Re:Did Tim Cook Post? (Score:4, Insightful)
Perhaps the point was to make an image that appears to be AI generated but isn't? Isn't that supposed to be the point of Pluribus?
The fact that people are debating the work means it's accomplishing the task it was supposed to and that Apple commissioned some art that generated valuable marketing.
An apples and oranges comparison. (Score:4, Insightful)
"The irony here is pretty rich," added Piunikaweb. "While Cook was getting dragged for posting human-made art, Google CEO Sundar Pichai openly shared an AI-generated snow globe image complete with a visible Gemini watermark on December 25. His post just said 'Merry Christmas! Wishing you a joyful holiday with friends and family,' and the replies were overwhelmingly positive."
Nothing ironic about it. Pichai's artwork has a watermark. He's being up-front that the image is AI generated and it's a product of his company. His holiday greeting is just another marketing message for Gemini and being posted that way by the CEO is totally on-brand. Apple is promoting their TV series with Cook's message and not generative art.
Given the mistakes found in the image In wondering if "modern and whimsical" is code for "lacks classical drawing skills and attention to detail".
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But, really, who gives a flying fuck?
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I've been thinking this for a while now. I've been seeing all kinds of mistakes in print advertising, mostly really obvious typos, from companies that you'd think would be concerned about looking reputable. I don't think the mistakes are accidents. I think they're intentionally matching the sloppy writing that so many people use on social media, most likely to len
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I've been thinking this for a while now. I've been seeing all kinds of mistakes in print advertising, mostly really obvious typos, from companies that you'd think would be concerned about looking reputable.
There are multiple reasons for that I feel. The first is a general degradation in language skills among people, from problems in the education system. Learning proper English grammar and writing has been de-emphasized, along with attempts by some groups to try and elevate trends in bad spelling and sentence structure as "correct". They would either refer to them as "dialects" or give some philosophical drivel about how "language is fluid" so this is just English changing over time, rather than call it what
Stop calling all AI art slop (Score:2)
If you are wondering if it is AI or not, then it cannot be that sloppy.
Don't follow the terms 404media and other clickbait sites use. The neutral term is "AI (generated) images"
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It's honestly pretty sloppy. The maze has a bunch of smeared lines on it. I think the only "doubt" is coming from journalists using cliche phrasing.
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I've seen better (AI) art, but the image serves it its purpose. It's like a cheap christmas card with a cheesy motive. If you select one of the three christmas images on the first page of the stockphoto page, or if you use the best of three generations with a generic prompt is basically the same.
And I think mazes, in particular working ones, are not the strength of image models. Maybe the tranformer based can be a bit better than the pure diffusers, but as long as they are not trained on the logic of a maze
IZ-US (Score:4, Insightful)
Pluribus is a starkly fitting show for this moment: a dystopic wish-fulfillment dark fantasy that allows the viewer to self-insert as a character who is the absolute center of the universe and simultaneously the victim of a unrestricted global conspiracy to undermine their sanity and agency.
I cannot think of a more perfect work in this modern moment to reflect the viewership.
The $6.40 question (Score:3)
Is it an AI trying to mimic human artistry, or a human artist trying to mimic AI's mimicry of human artistry?
In the end, does it matter which?
Games on milk cartons (Score:2)
Just because he hasn't seen them, doesn't mean they don't exist. I distinctly remember various games on the sides of milk cartons. Like these:
https://www.reddit.com/r/mildl... [reddit.com]
https://images.squarespace-cdn... [squarespace-cdn.com]
https://bloximages.chicago2.vi... [townnews.com]
Of course he did. But the real question is... (Score:2)
Did he use Apple's AI technology, or did he use AI from some other company?
Two things (Score:2)
1. This is ironic because Pluribus is pretty much a critique of Ai.
2. Someone at Apple actually promoting a show on their platform, but then doing it in the worst way possible.
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2) It has attribution of a human, and that human at least claims that all of his art is hand drawn and digitally edited.
Just Embarrassing. Time for Linux to step up! (Score:2)
Over time, Apple's management has lost important awareness of and focus on good design, and taste.
Scott Jenson gave this great talk recently [youtube.com] on how Apple and Windows have spent 20 years spinning their wheels on OS design, and laying out how Linux might step in to take some leadership.