Art is sort of a subjective thing. An old tin of beans can be art, in the right hands. But creating it usually takes a certain sort of mind. Wombo Dream, an AI-powered artist that works using a combination of word prompts and machine learning, may just have that mind.
What’s a Wombo Dream?
The app is available through a web browser, as well as on Android and iOS, and it’s a splendid little time-waster. Even more so because the images it generates are surprisingly compelling. We fed it several prompts, from Donald Trump to Seaside Views, and settled on the three in the header image above.
From left to right, the images represent Batman, a Magic 8 Ball, and Sonic the Hedgehog. We’re not comfortable showing the world the Cronenberg nightmare image the Trump prompt spat out. As with most AI-powered creation systems, results aren’t guaranteed. Some images will look incredible, others will fall short of greatness.
There’s little idea what the creators of Wombo Dream are using to generate these images. It’s suspected that VQGAN+CLIP is involved in the process, but it’s unconfirmed. The app comes from the same company that created and manages a popular deepfake singing AI, so it’s unsurprising that its attempts at AI artworks are as… interesting as they are. They’re certainly better than any of Stuff‘s attempts at creating art. Except Marcé Heath, whose Godzilla paintings would definitely kick Wombo’s ass.
