The Economist explains

How AI image-generators work

Some are getting good enough to fool humans

An image created by AI of Donald Trump being arrested, surrounded by police in black uniforms.
Image: Eliot Higgins

THE FLURRY of images generated by artificial intelligence (AI) feels like the product of a thoroughly modern tool. In fact, computers have been at the easel for decades. In the early 1970s Harold Cohen, an artist, taught one to draw using an early AI system. “AARON” could instruct a robot to sketch black-and-white shapes on paper; within a decade Cohen had taught AARON to draw human figures.

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From the July 15th 2023 edition

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