AI lets you create the Pokémon of your dreams
Last Updated on: 1st October 2022, 09:49 am
If you ever had dreams of creating your own Pokémon but never had the creativity to ever draw them, this AI can help you make them come alive.
Your inner child may be itching to make a new variant of a Pokémon. Have you ever thought about what a dragon-type Pikachu would look like? How about a Pokémon that looked like a person you always idolized? Have you ever wondered what the kind of Pokémon Totoro of My Neighbor Totoro or Hello Kitty would look like? There is a new AI-powered Pokémon generator that can bring all your dream variants, possibilities, and more in these crossovers with real life.
Justin Pinkney, a senior machine learning researcher at Lambda Labs, just released a Text-to-Pokémon generator to the public. Lambda Labs is a “deep-learning company that provides high-powered computer workstations and servers to clients.” Pinkney started to get interested in this project while he was completing his Ph.D. in biophysics at the University of Oxford.
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How the AI Pokémon generator works
Although the technology aptly called ‘text-to-image” generator has been in the programming world for a while, the visual aesthetics of it just recently started to make the general public curious. Its variants include the “deep fake” technology and AI-generated artworks through texts inputted by a user.
It works through a process called deep learning. A series of algorithms preprogrammed to the AI will make predictions and complete tasks that are placed by the user and generate a visual representation of the inputted data. The process is similar to how our brain works when some tries to describe something to us. The AI tries to make sense of the information provided by the user based on pre-existing data preset on the AI. Its database includes pictures and illustrations that the AI pieces together to make a discernable output based on the initially indicated prompts of the user.
In an interview with Justin Pinkney with the Washington Post, he explained that “this creation is adapted from an open-source deep-learning model called Stable Diffusion, which already has vast data sets of information. Text-to-Pokémon works by matching Stable Diffusion’s data sets to a data set of 850 Pokémon images from a previous university-run research project, which Pinkney filed using an automated caption system to categorize each image with a text description.”
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AI Pokémon generator used to public figures
The official Twitter account of Justin Pinkney has previously posted AI-generated pictures that were fused with prominent public figures, beloved anime characters, and even classic cartoon characters. The tweet he posted above had the caption: “Girl with a pearl earring, Cute Obama creature, Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, Totoro, Hello Kitty.”
Justin Pinkney has posted an in-depth explanation of how his generator works on Lambda’s blog. This will show people how the Text-to-Pokémon generator works with prominent figures. If you plan to try it on yourself, you will likely get abstract results (unless you’re a public figure on the internet). More information about the capabilities and limitations of AI can be found in this blog post BY Pinkney.
“Personally, although I think text prompts are a nice, easy interface to tell the AI what sort of image you want, I’m really interested in how to add other ways of influencing and controlling the output, to make it much more useful for artists and creatives to guide it to give the sort of images they’re after.”
Justin Pinkney, Machine Learning Researcher at Lambda Labs on his letter to the Washington Post
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Want to try the AI Pokémon generator?
If you are curious, you can create your own Pokémon through this website. You will need to create your own GitHub account or log in if you already have one. Once you’ve done that, you can start creating your model by entering prompts (like Brad Pitt, Goku, or Homer Simpson) into the fields, then hit submit to generate your own.
