/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24054867/ai_generated_pokemon.jpg "Turn anyone into a pokémon with this AI art model")
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Though they can only do battle in your mind
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A fun little AI art widget named Text-to-Pokémon lets you plug in any name or description you like and (you guessed it) generate a pokémon matching your prompt.
The model’s output isn’t flawless, but it’s incredibly entertaining all the same. You can try punching in the names of celebrities or politicians (see “Boris Johnson” and “Vladimir Putin” in the image above) or just general descriptions of the sort of pokémon that would tickle your personal fancy (the one below is my “skeleton priest”).
(A little tip for using the tool more efficiently: make sure you select “4” from the “num_outputs” drop-down menu to get four images per prompt rather than just one.)
The model is the work of machine learning researcher Justin Pinkney, who’s built a number of visual AI tools and resources. Notably, this particular model is adapted from a much bigger and much more powerful AI art generator named Stable Diffusion. While rival programs like DALL-E and Midjourney are locked down, Stable Diffusion is open source, making it easy for others to fiddle with its output. And that’s exactly what Pinkney did, fine-tuning the system using a database of pokémon to create this little tool.
A quick search on Twitter shows people have been using Text-to-Pokémon to make all sorts of mash-ups, including Goku, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Jesus H. Christ himself. (Who, I’m going to say, is a dual psychic / ghost-type known for his signature move, “Resurrection.”)
In a thread on Twitter, Pinkney goes into a bit more detail on how he made the tool.
“Stable Diffusion is a great generalist model, but getting a certain style of output is pretty tricky, it usual needs some serious ‘prompt engineering’ (which I am rubbish at),” he says. “Fine tuning the model itself is an easy approach to focus on just what you want, if you have some data. I fine tuned the original stable diffusion on a Pokemon dataset.”
This is the big benefit of releasing open-source AI models like Stable Diffusion: people come up with fun little tools like this. But it’s worth remembering that open source also has its downsides, and pretty much anyone is able to use Stable Diffusion to generate violent and sexual imagery or misinformation and nonconsensual pornography. You can read more about these tradeoffs and why Stable Diffusion creators released the model as it is right here.
Richard Lawler15 minutes ago
Teen hacking suspect linked to GTA 6 leak and Uber security breach charged in London.
City of London police tweeted Saturday that the teenager arrested on suspicion of hacking has been charged with “two counts of breach of bail conditions and two counts of computer misuse.”
They haven’t confirmed any connection with the GTA 6 leak or Uber hack, but the details line up with those incidents, as well as a suspect arrested this spring for the Lapsus$ breaches.
Green light.
Good morning to everyone, except for the intern or whoever prevented us from seeing how Microsoft’s Surface held up to yet another violent NFL incident.
Today’s big event is the crash of a NASA spaceship this evening — on purpose. Mary Beth Griggs can explain.
Thousands and thousands of reasons people love Android.
“Android fans, what are the primary reasons why you will never ever switch to an iPhone?” That question led to almost 30,000 comments so far, and was for a while the most popular thing on Reddit. It’s a totally fascinating peek into the platform wars, and I’ve spent way too much time reading through it. I also laughed hard at “I can turn my text bubbles to any color I like.”
The Simpsons pays tribute to Chrome’s dino game.
Season 34 of The Simpsons kicked off on Sunday night with an opening credits “couch gag” based on the offline dino game from Google’s Chrome browser. Cactus, cactus, couch, d’oh! Perfect.
Table breaks before Apple Watch Ultra’s sapphire glass.
”It’s the most rugged and capable Apple Watch yet,” said Apple at the launch of the Apple Watch Ultra (read The Verge review here). YouTuber TechRax put that claim to the test with a series of drop, scratch, and hammer tests. Takeaways: the titanium case will scratch with enough abuse, and that flat sapphire front crystal is tough — tougher than the table which cracks before the Ultra fails — but not indestructible.
Rihanna’s headlining the Super Bowl Halftime Show.
Apple Music’s set to sponsor the Halftime Show next February, and it’s starting out strong with a performance from Rihanna. I honestly can’t remember which company sponsored the Halftime Show before Pepsi, so it’ll be nice to see how Apple handles the show for Super Bowl LVII.
Starlink is growing.
The Elon Musk-owned satellite internet service, which covers all seven continents including Antarctica, has now made over 1 million user terminals. Musk has big plans for the service, which he hopes to expand to cruise ships, planes, and even school buses.
Musk recently said he’ll sidestep sanctions to activate the service in Iran, where the government put restrictions on communications due to mass protests. He followed through on his promise to bring Starlink to Ukraine at the start of Russia’s invasion, so we’ll have to wait and see if he manages to bring the service to Iran as well.
We might not get another Apple event this year.
While Apple was initially expected to hold an event to launch its rumored M2-equipped Macs and iPads in October, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman predicts Apple will announce its new devices in a series of press releases, website updates, and media briefings instead.
I know that it probably takes a lot of work to put these polished events together, but if Apple does pass on it this year, I will kind of miss vibing to the livestream’s music and seeing all the new products get presented.
California Governor Gavin Newsom vetoes the state’s “BitLicense” law.
The bill, called the Digital Financial Assets Law, would establish a regulatory framework for companies that transact with cryptocurrency in the state, similar to New York’s BitLicense system. In a statement, Newsom says it’s “premature to lock a licensing structure” and that implementing such a program is a “costly undertaking:”
A more flexible approach is needed to ensure regulatory oversight can keep up with rapidly evolving technology and use cases, and is tailored with the proper tools to address trends and mitigate consumer harm.
Look at this Thing.
At its Tudum event today, Netflix showed off a new clip from the Tim Burton series Wednesday, which focused on a very important character: the sentient hand known as Thing. The full series starts streaming on November 23rd.
