“A” For Awesome: The AI Tattoo Designed By DALL-E 2, A Neural Network Algorithm
By Sidra Lackey
The world’s first AI tattoo designed earlier in the year by DALL-E 2, was the letter “A.” Pretty awesome. Everett Randle, is the first man to receive a tattoo created by an AI algorithm. He opted to get the AI tattoo (that also included along with the letter “A” a cross and arrow) on his bicep. He proudly posted the finished product online, acknowledging, “I’ve done exactly 0 minutes of extensive research on this.”
What exactly is DALL-E 2 who developed the first tattoo via artificial intelligence? DALL-E 2 is a new AI system from OpenAI. OpenAI’s website states they are an AI research and deployment company with the mission, “to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity.” In the video “DALL-E 2 Explained” it is detailed that DALL-E 2 can create realistic images and art from a description in natural language: “DALL-E was created by training a neural network on images and their text descriptions. The DALL-E research has three main outcomes: first, it can help people express themselves visually in ways they may not have been able to before. Second, an AI-generated image can tell us a lot about whether the system understands us, or is just repeating what it has been taught. Third, it helps humans understand how AI systems see and understand our world. This is a critical part of developing AI that’s useful and safe.” OpenAI admitted DALL-E 2 has “limitations” but the technology is “constantly evolving.”
Did DALL-E 2 truly create the world’s first AI tattoo? Maybe not. In 2016, a French industrial design team, Appropriate Audiences, used a full-size, automated industrial robot to tattoo a tattoo onto a human leg. VICE reported in 2016 that Johan Da Silveira and Pierre Emm, worked with Autodesk’s Applied Research Lab to create the "world's first" tattoo inked by a robot. For the tattoo to be created, Da Silveira and Emm, “used multiple inputs like generative drawing, coding, bitmap and vectors. They generated all the time in g-code (machine language), while creating the spiral in Autodesk’s Fusion 360 vector software. To link and pilot the robotic arm, Fanuc, they used a dynamo. When the robot began receiving the program from the computer it was then able to start tattooing the spiral pattern on Emm’s leg.”
The AI tattoo designed by DALL-E 2 turned out surprisingly spectacular. It’s a simple design but it looks clean, done precise enough and seemed safe to get. One couldn’t tell a human tattoo artist didn’t tattoo it. Tattoo collectors, would you ever consider getting an AI tattoo if they became widely available? Or would you rather stick to human tattoo artists and all they offer: experience, hospitality (hopefully) etc. Tattoo artists, did DALL-E 2 get an “A” or “F” grade on the “A” tattoo? Do you feel threatened that the future of tattoos could very well be in the hands of AI tattooists?