Let's Be Real

There’s a powerful new art installation exhibit in the Louvre involving Porsches.  Have a look.  

Scroll back and look a bit more.  Think about what you’re looking at.  These Porsches have been utterly obliterated.  They’re not Macans or clapped out 944’s that have lived under your neighbor's tree for a decade.  These are 911 Turbos and a 911 GT3 RS, these are the best of the best. The best accelerating, the best handling, and the best stopping cars Porsche can build.  They're hardest of the hard to buy, even if you have the money to buy them. 

I’ll wait while you look again.

Now, are you ready to have you mind blown?

These pictures are not real.  This installation does not exist anywhere other than cyberspace.  These images were created using Artificial Intelligence.  More specifically an AI called Midjourney, supplemented by Adobe Photoshop’s Generative AI Fill.  I stumbled upon these pictures, posted by an Instagram account called Faceoff, while doomscrolling on my lunch break this week. I was stunned.  Stunned before and after I knew they were figments of artificial intelligence. I had to go back and look at them two or three times.

I’ve been to the Louvre, I’ve seen countless Porsches, I’ve wrecked a car, I’ve seen the results of vicious crashes first hand (note how I did not use the word “accident”)…I should not have been fooled, but yet I was.  The creases in the svelte bodies.  How most of the wrecks seem to be oversteer collisions into a wall. (Just like you'd expect a Porsche pushed too far to crash.)  How the suspension and steering seems to have collapsed as if it was part of a crumple zone. Heck, the lighting and reflections in the paint appear correct.  It’s hauntingly realistic, especially the people just casually walking by.   

In reality, an installation like this would take more guts than many car manufacturers have.  Probably more than most museums have. It's not hard to imagine there being lawsuits over an exhibit like this; it's the only giveaway to these images being AI generated. Which is a shame. Art shouldn't be explained to a viewer, there shouldn’t be disclaimers before walking into an exhibit or clicking a link.  If these cars were actually in the Louvre, it would be triggering to many people.  Natural questions would pop into your head.  Did the driver survive? Are Porsches safe cars?  Did this happen on the street or a track?  How did they get these cars in here?  How is the person next to me reacting? Am I having the correct reaction?

But this is all fake. So none of this matters, right?

That’s not the point, at least the major one.  The major point is whatever your gut reaction was before you read “these pictures are not real".  Your reaction was likely a bit different than mine.  The second point is that AI, despite being in it’s infancy, is this good.  I know how I felt about the first point, but I’m not so sure how I feel about the second.   

While the images aren't real, whatever you feel is real. That's what matters. That's what makes it real.

Drive Safely.