The Little World

The brouhaha about AI seems to be heating up, which is fine if you are in Australia in the middle of winter. Frankly, any warmth is welcome.

For scale modellers it will make no less of a difference than it will for photographers, gossip column writers, or people who clean drains. We will explore the possibilities for the Little World in coming posts – but remember that it is still early days; these posts are written by regular intelligence and it has more flaws in it than the electric kind.

Today: Where will AI affect the kit making companies?

The art departments that make box lids will have an opportunity to illustrate the contents by merely describing the prototype and assigning it a suitable environment. The AI art circuit will come up with the file and it will go to the AI graphic layout circuit, which will instruct the AI-powered printer.

But remember that the instructions originally come from someone in Prague, or Kiev, or Tokyo. Their ability to imagine is forced though a series of sieves – cultural, linguistic, and personal. What they write and the AI seizes upon may well be weirder than any artist with paint and brush.

If you think AI can make a mockery of fingers in an image of people, imagine what it will do to the struts of a WW1 biplane and the interconnecting wires.

Now imagine the commands being entered into the machine by a junior employee in Prague with limited typing skills, a hip lingo, their mind on the weekend, and a computer keyboard full of spilled coffee and cake crumbs.

Add beer at lunchtime or pot after work and see what you get…