About AI-ary

AI-ary is a personal project which evolved from an evening of playing with DALL-E 2. Like seemingly everybody else at the time, I was mesmerized by the capability of DALL-E and the sheer variety of prompts it could interpret. So much so that I wanted to have these beautiful pictures framed and hung on a wall. A weekend of tinkering and the acquisition of an old iPad later, AI-ary was born. As of November 2023, it runs on DALL-E 3.

How it works

AI-ary is a set of three python scripts running on my home server:

• curate.py is executed manually once per year. It reads my diary, which I export once per year as a .txt file, into an array, separating the Date, Weather and Location for each entry from what I have actually written. For each diary entry, a random sentence is selected and checked for compliance with OpenAI standards. If the sentence passes the check, it is saved in a .csv along with the Date, Time, Location and Weather information. If not, a new sentence is selected.
• generate.py is automatically executed once a month and uses DALL-E 3 to generate the current month's images - one per day - from the random sentences chosen by curate.py and a list of my favourite artists. The location of the image can be taken into account, but in the past, this has produced confusing results, so this feature is turned off at the moment.
• display.py runs every day and updates the picture that is currently on display. It uses GPT 4 to generate a short title from the original prompt in order to keep the actual diary entry private.

The picture is embedded in a simple HTML site, which in turn is displayed on an iPad in a picture frame adorning my living room. The newest addition is an Instagram account posing as a melodramatic artist who draws inspiration from my life. The account is updated daily with the current picture and a GPT-generated caption.

Sample images (DALL-E 2 Version)

"Ich überlege ernsthaft, das Auto wieder zurückzubauen und gegen einen Transporter einzutauschen"
Henri Rousseau

"Im Vergleich zu Florenz ist es aber richtig leer hier"
Marc Chagall

"Ich weiß inzwischen wirklich nicht mehr was ich davon halten soll"
Titian

"XXX postet ein Foto seines Blutdruckmedikaments und seine SV-Nr."
Sandro Boticelli

"So ist aber alles super, wir unterhalten uns gut und ich falle erschöpft ins Bett (aufs Sofa)."
Edward Hopper

"Es folgen 1,5 km Lauf über den Strand, Yoga und ein kurzes Bad im Meer."
Mark Rothko

"Wir schauen uns kurz um (XXX setzt gleich ihre Maske auf, damit sie nicht so viel riecht) und gehen dann zum Teatro Graeco, das auch Teatro Romano heißt, weil es beides ist"
Jeff Koons

"Missmutig packen wir unsere Schmutzwäsche in vier große Einkaufstaschen und schicken XXX & XXX auf den Weg."
Helmut Newton

"Begleitet werden wir (den ganzen Weg hin und zurück!) von unserem neuen Freund XXX, einer sehr anhänglichen Katze"
Friedensreich Hundertwasser

"Sie sind gleich in der nächsten Bucht; wir fahren mit dem Dinghi an den Strand und wandern ein Stück"
Edward Hopper