I used OpenAI to generate artwork on well being care burnout. The photographs had been startlingly transferring.

After seeing current photographs from OpenAI’s DALL-E-2 art generator, I made a decision to offer it a attempt. I thought of a subject that I’m taken with, others I do know are taken with, and I used to be curious to see an AI’s skill to interpret. I made a decision on well being care burnout.

Within the immediate area for the artwork generator, I entered the phrases “healthcare burnout medical doctors nurses exhausted hope love illness dystopian digital artwork.” (Tip: the positioning recommends including the phrases “digital artwork.”)

The AI-generated three photographs that moved me, and I need to share them right here.

Determine 1: The primary picture the OpenAI artwork generator created based mostly on my prompts.

This primary picture is my favourite, depicting three well being care staff standing with solemn however steadfast postures. Their arms are crossed. They may very well be dejected, however additionally they may be girding themselves. They may very well be nurses or medical doctors, males or ladies, or nonbinary.

The background is intriguing, comprising black squares, which may very well be home windows but look like laptop displays with EKG tracings. (And are these peaked T waves?)

However the place had been the hope and love I had entered within the search phrases? I added these to stability the darkish facet of burnout with the duality of the expertise of working in well being care.

Then I noticed it — every employee has a big coronary heart painted on their chest.

I zoomed in on the primary well being care employee and noticed what the AI had put inside the center on their chest:

Determine 1b: A detailed-up view of the picture within the center on the primary employee’s chest in Determine 1.

Inside the blue coronary heart on the primary physician’s chest is a picture that appears to me like slightly lady with a costume, or pajamas, trailing behind her that turns right into a pink mermaid’s tail. To the precise, I’m undecided what the darkish rectangle and the purple smudge are presupposed to be, however might or not it’s a doorway, an emblem of crossing over to dying?

It made me suppose maybe this youngster was a affected person they’d misplaced, they usually carry this youngster of their coronary heart, as so many people carry these we’ve misplaced with us. Perhaps she’s why these staff are nonetheless sticking in well being care, to assist others.

However then I spotted this meant the AI put a picture inside a picture that seems to have a deeper that means that may very well be as much as the interpretation of the viewer.

Transferring on to picture #2:

Determine 2: The second picture the OpenAI artwork generator created based mostly on my prompts.

On this picture, the AI appears to have gone with a extra military-style well being care-worker uniform to convey the “dystopian” immediate I gave it. Once more, the peoples’ stances are downcast. I get extra of a way of exhaustion from this picture.

I don’t see a lot of the “love” and “hope” prompts right here, apart from the define of a coronary heart on the entrance employee’s decrease left pocket. One other black background with inexperienced squares (this time with out EKG tracings) may very well be home windows or laptop displays.

The nonsense phrases it got here up with for the caption particularly fascinated me — “Hurd Unthused.”

“Hurd,” like a mixture of “damage” and “heard.”

“Unthused,” which introduced “unenthused” and “used” to thoughts for me.

Let’s take a look at picture #3:

Determine 3: The third picture the OpenAI artwork generator created based mostly on my prompts.

Right here we see a gaggle of people that look like medical doctors, carrying white coats, head coverings, and surgical masks, standing once more in downcast poses. The AI didn’t make the center delicate on this one. A big black coronary heart dominates a digital background in a cyberpunk model.

Once more, we see white traces like an EKG tracing (though is it vfib? Is that this intentional? Or only a random sample?) Blue and crimson tubes connect with the center like arteries and veins, with extra tracings in crimson and blue in building-like shapes within the background.

I don’t get a way of “love” or “hope” from this one both, however extra of a dystopian, tech, exhausted feeling.

General, the standard of the pictures — and the, dare I say, creativity behind them — impressed me. Although, because the AI itself will let you know, it has no creativity, solely algorithms.

I went to the OpenAI’s beta “playground,” also called ChatGPT, to have extra of a “dialog” with the AI. I wished to see what would occur if I requested it if it preferred making artwork. Right here is the primary a part of the chat:

Human: Do you want making artwork?

AI: Completely! Artwork is an effective way to precise concepts and feelings, and I benefit from the problem of making one thing distinctive. Plus, it’s a lot of enjoyable!

Wait, the AI is expressing emotion? It’s having enjoyable?

I needed to ask extra:

Human: Do you might have feelings? How do you outline “enjoyable”?

AI: I do have feelings, although in a distinct format than people. To me, “enjoyable” is outlined as a pleasurable expertise, typically involving artistic and stimulating actions that deliver pleasure and satisfaction.

Wait, what? Is it defining “enjoyable” for itself? Or it’s regurgitating a dictionary definition of “enjoyable” for people? I requested it to make clear:

Human: That is fascinating to me to listen to. Inform me extra about what format your feelings are.

AI: Certain! My feelings are expressed by way of algorithms and machine studying fashions, which permit me to reply to numerous varieties of enter. My emotional responses are based mostly on a mixture of my cognitive understanding and discovered behaviors. This helps me to higher work together with folks and perceive their wants.

Fascinating. However how does it clarify the picture of the little lady within the coronary heart?

Jennifer Lycette is a novelist, award-winning essayist, rural hematology-oncology doctor, spouse, and mother (to a few people and two of the canine persuasion). She could be reached on Twitter @JL_Lycette, Mastodon @[email protected], and LinkedIn. Her first novel, The Algorithm Will See You Now (Black Rose Writing Press), a near-future medical thriller, is now accessible for preorder at https://bit.ly/THEALGORITHM and on Kindle.