Friday, June 19, 2026

Ranma Avatar

If you've read some of this blog, then you've probably read my rants on the use of AI in erotic artwork. Mind, if you've read carefully, then you know that I'm not completely opposed. The biggest problem is that for cartoons, one needs to put in some real effort with the prompts in order to get a result which is interesting. Bland, generic art, no matter how good or bad the drawing itself, remains bland and generic. But one does occasionally come across someone who has made a better effort.

Now, on the other hand, there are some things for which I think AI-generated images are reasonably well suited. For example, the production of avatars. It's perfectly okay, usually, for an avatar to be relatively generic. I was experimenting with doing that sort of thing recently, intentionally mildly erotic. Now, I don't claim any particular degree of skill at creating AI artwork, and in fact I feel that most of the results I produced rightly belonged in the trash bin. But I rather liked the Ranma avatar that came out, and which I have copied here.



Wednesday, June 17, 2026

AI Storytelling

Wow, more than a year since I last posted, aside from comments.
I've been doing some experimenting lately with using AI tools to write bits of stories. As I rather expected, the results are not something I would ever publish anywhere, at least not with my name attached, as I just don't feel that it's up to my standards. And the AI, no matter how carefully constructed my prompts, will insist on taking scenes in directions I would not have gone.

On the other hand - the AI does come up with an interesting idea from time to time, which may vary from my plans, but in a way which is occasionally worthwhile. And even when following my plan, it will occasionally come up with an idea or a twist which elicits a, "Huh. Yeah that's not a bad way to do it."

Of course, I do insist on giving the AI very detailed prompts. Because I generally cannot stand it when the AI goes off on its own into entirely unexpected territory, based solely on its extraction of patterns from other people's generic ideas of pornography. The few times I tried giving the AI some more freedom, I found the results to be quite disappointing.

So from my point of view, there does seem to be some worth to using an AI where I give it a fairly detailed outline of where I think the story should go next, and then let the AI give me its version of how that would work. The result won't be fully acceptable (and definitely not publishable), but it can provide additional plot points, paths, and twists which are worth considering for incorporation. Not that I'm actually expecting to write anything these days (my health is pretty poor), but I still like to plot out stories, and imagine the stories that I would write. And some of them do make good fantasy material.