Is AI The Future of Cat Art?
Is AI The Future of Cat Art? by Layla Morgan Wilde. Copyright Cat Wisdom 101.
I’ve always said the future is feline but I never imagined the future of cat art included AI. Welcome to the brave new world of AI for cat art and more. You’ve probably heard how artificial intelligence is becoming mainstream, but how can cat lovers use it? Read on. This post was written by a human with a little help from AI.
I’ve created and curated tons of physical and digital cat art over the years which is time consuming and I was wary about AI. With a spirit of adventure, I sampled a few platforms that generate AI art using word prompts and to transform my own images. All AI apps or platforms generate images in a choice of sizes. The smaller free images included here are not high res. but still nice and usable. As of today AI art can’t be copyright.
Forget about any AI platform being free. Ai is not some utopian dream. It’s about making money. Every platform offers free trials or limited credits but pushes upgrades and monthly or yearly paid subscriptions. They will want you to register with an email or sign up with Gmail or Facebook. My favorite Ai art platforms so far for ease of use and less restrictions is NightCafe and Starrify or Deepai interesting artistic styles. I like the free version of Dreamai for their easy and fast vertical size, perfect of Pinterest or IG stories.
The elite Midjourney platform requires an invite and you must join Discord. I got in but honestly, it was too complicated for me at this point. The quality of the ai images are next level though.
Of course I was curious to see how my cat Odin could be transformed. I opted to transform his top 9 Instagram posts of 2022. Sorry for the low res. screenshot.
I was shocked to see how drastically the AI shifted all 9 images especially the Nou Nou sign into a sweet gray cat like her.
So grab a coffee and enjoy this gallery of AI cats. The word prompt was: two cats drinking coffee by a campfire. I compiled a collage of nine very different styles.
After experimenting for awhile, I found images I really liked benefited from a manual edit. The spiffed up tabby got brighter eyes, a starry sky and a silly text title. I could see ai cats used for book covers.
AI is fascinating in its wonkiness. Since it’s the Chinese year of the Rabbit, I made a rabbit which at first glance looked cute. But wait, isn’t that an extra pair of ears? I noticed with cats, there was often an extra tail or leg as if put together by a mad scientist. I was curious to see how I’d look re-imagined by Van Gogh and the cotton ball angel kitty looked almost heavenly.
I also used ai to generate potential text for this blog post. In the interest of transparency, I’ve included the ai writing samples from the Rytr platform.
For writing, I found Rytr.me easy to use and free for 2000 words a month. If you’re using it for Instagram or Facebook captions, short ad copy and such, it will suffice.
Here are three samples of short descriptions for ai cat art in a friendly albeit salesy tone.
- Have you ever wanted to create your own cat art, but don’t know where to start? If so, then AI generators are here to help! With AI generators, anyone can create a unique piece of cat art in no time. Whether you’re a professional artist or just looking for something fun and creative to do in your spare time, AI cat art is the perfect way to express your creativity without spending hours on it. So why not give it a try and see what amazing works of art you can create using AI technology?
- Cats have been a source of art and inspiration for centuries, but now with the help of AI generators, we can take cat art to the next level. With AI cat art, you can create unique and amazing pieces of artwork that are sure to impress your friends and family. Whether you’re looking for a funny meme or an intricate painting, AI cat art is here to provide you with endless possibilities. So why not give it a try today and see what kind of masterpieces you can create?
- If you’re an artist and a cat lover, then creating AI cat art is the perfect way to combine your two passions. With AI generators, you can create unique and beautiful pieces of art featuring cats in all kinds of poses, colors, and styles. Whether you want to create a portrait of your own cat or a whimsical piece of abstract art featuring cats, AI generators can help make it happen. So unleash your creativity and get ready to create some amazing AI cat art!
All three achieved decent copy in under 30 seconds. Not bad. Keep in mind there is prep work.
The initial appeal of using ai to save time or money for writing quickly waned. Every platform expects the user to input as much detail, key words, style, tone etc. that I found confusing and time consuming. If you think it’ll help you write a blog post like this in less time, forget about it. Researching, creating and editing images and text took longer than usual.
Think of ai as a dog that needs training. It requires time, effort and patience. Will your efforts pay off? Eventually but no amount of training can peer inside your brain to the nuances of creativity and experience.
As a professional artist and writer, I like the idea of AI to tweak the imagination, to jump start or edit new ideas. New AI writing platforms are mushrooming offering excellent editing solutions beyond GRAMMARLY. That’s exciting and I’ll be exploring more of those.
THE Mysterious ART of AI Cat Art
AI art generators are cropping up by the dozen. The first one I tried made with Photoleap featured a cute cat riding a bicycle but all their images are watermarked. I prefer downloading as little as possible and taking screenshots. Depending on the ai art generating app or platform, I could choose from a mind-boggling array of art styles in black and white or color. Some platforms like Night Cafe Studio, once they have your email, send 10 credits a day.
Just before I published this post I started to explore DreamStudio. It’s in BETA, super easy with a feature including how may steps you want to generate. The more steps, the more intricate and detailed the image. The images generated are so lovely I’ll be posting AI Valentines cats next week.
If you want to get your paws wet with zero commitment or providing your email, I suggest images.ai. They are generated from a written description and offer a square, landscape or portrait mode. It’s fast but there isn’t a menu of art styles.
For example, one prompt was two cats drinking wine in a cafe. I could either click to generate another once or repeatedly or choose another style. I could see how it could be addictive clicking the create button over and over like a casino slot machine.
Sometimes the images would not include cats despite the text prompt. Cats might look like other animals like the fox? below. And yeah, that’s me again in some impressionist mish mash.
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The results were mixed. Some images (do I dare call it art?) looked normal but some clearly alien, like a cat with an extra pair of ears or the tail unattached to the body. Successful images like the kitty sitting pretty above looks fine but the objects are weird.
It’s possible to edit by changing the image but not specifically. To let’s say remove the extra ears or add an eye in the correct place, you’d have to use an editing program.
Honestly, I wasn’t thrilled with selfie portraits. The artist in me wanted to immediately tweak the results. Ha, five years of art college and this is what I get.
Some images work well without editing and it’s scary how fast the process is. It can take a mere 5 seconds to a minute to generate a work of “art”. A few minutes of extra tweaking and voila!
To anyone who isn’t an artist, it’s novel and even magical. To an artist, illustrator or anyone used to digital editing, it can be inspiring, frustrating and anything in between.
I see AI as a creative tool with enormous potential but with drawbacks. If it’s so quick and easy, a monkey could create, why pay a real artist?
What would a chat bot say? I asked ChatGPT
Will creating ai cat art hurt real artists?
“It’s difficult to say for sure, but AI-generated art has the potential to disrupt the traditional art market. On one hand, it could increase accessibility and affordability of art. On the other hand, it could make it more difficult for human artists to compete and sell their work. Ultimately, the impact of AI art on the industry will depend on how it is received and adopted by consumers and the art community.”
That said, Getty Images is suing Stability AI, creators of generative AI art model Stable Diffusion for copyright infringement. It’s one thing to use the work of artists long dead or in the public domain, but another to infringe on the work of contemporary artists.
It’s too soon to know the future ramifications of AI but it’s safe to say, it is the future and it’s here to stay. It’s up to us individually to decide whether to engage in this brave new world or not. Art and artists have always evolved and AI will push the boundaries to uncharted territory.
Have you experimented with any AI generators yet? I’d love to hear in the comments what you discovered?
28 Comments
Brenda
Great post! I started using NightCafe recently and had just googled “why are so many cat artworks winning so many challenges on Nightcafe — and this page popped up! So interestingly enough, so so many of the images I see generated are cat related and often win the challenges/contests. It could just be I see so many cat creations because that’s what I gravitate to and maybe NC has an algorithm on how many cat images I’ve liked. I’m only using AI art because it’s like a game to me, and I get to “create”. The downside is that I’m obsessed with trying so many things that pop into my mind but don’t have enough credits to have it produce them all! lol!
I’m not using it to sell any of the images I create but I do use it to create an artwork I have in mind and then if it creates something really cool I use that concept to paint my own artwork. So in essence it’s helping me, like it helps others to save time writing a blog post (sometimes…) or at least enhance what you want to write. AND, like everything else, it’s all about $ in the long run. None are totally free as far as I know. One does need to work at getting the credits to use most of the AI generators or pay them. So I see it as just another way for someone to make money, ie the creators of each program. I see it as each person who feels displaced by AI can find their way to utilize it to enhance their work or find a different way to embrace it for a different career or ideas. The one thing I don’t like about it is the creepy images that it produces but that comes from the mind of the person who inputs those prompts and the style that comes it. That’s the weirdness of someones mind originally, not AI.
All that said, I hope y’all still like my art (that I created with AI) that I post on my blog :-).
Love ya!
Brenda and the Ts (Tommy & Teaghan)
Meezer'sMews&TerrieristicalWoofs
Some of those images you showed are amazing and wonderful; some sure gave me the creeps.
Soo maybe it might work oor become popular, bu what about peeps like me who take an image of someone’s beloved furry one and turn it into a memento, layer upon layer until the desired effect is accomplished? (Which takes hours sometimes…) I don’t think AI could do the things I would like.
Erin the Literary Cat
The real thing for us. Though will we be able to tell if AI gets so good? Honesty will be supreme in this. And as everyone sees everything differently, who’s to say what is valid? Maybe it is all down to one sentient being achieving what is difficult or impossible for others, thus giving it value. Once everyone can do something, it is diminished in worth. There is too much of that in life as it is.
ERin
Layla
I wish there was a way to be more discerning but you have probably already seen magazine and book covers and not been able to tell the difference. The tech is improving daily and it’s a scary thought what will transpire in the next year.
Skeeter and Izzy
This reminds me alot of the art work from the stoned 60’s and 70’s in many ways. Hmmmmmmmmm me thinks alot of heavy duty LSD stoners may actually be functioning today using AI cause their brain cells didn’t make it to the 2000’s …LOL
It is all interesting in ways.
I always prefer the real stuff, unedited other than some minor cropping in photos. The soul showing thru in the art thats what makes the difference from human creation to computer /AI creation.
Luvs
Skeeter and Izzy and the Feral gang and the Angels (1 more added to the angels on 1/27/23) >^..^^..^<~
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Ellen J Pilch
You have some very cool images there. XO
Layla
Thanks Ellen!
Leah
I haven’t tried AI yet due to illness, and have mixed feelings about it. Some is indeed elegant, and some has an “artificial” look to me. I was a painter and mixed media artist until illness reduced my stamina 30 years ago. I moved to photography and digital editing, which I’m still trying to learn. I’ve found it has room for artistry and individual expression and I’m far from having learned it all. Is it that different from AI and in what ways? Maybe AI has space for the artist, too. Maybe there will be new terms for traditional art forms, like hand-designed or hand-constructed. There was concern in the art world when people first started to use boxes to make light graphs, too. So maybe traditional art won’t be too terribly impacted. Still, AI art and writing somehow makes me think of Blade Runner …
Layla Wilde
Thanks Leah. Im interested in hearing about your perspective as an artist and agree. There is something very sci-fi about it.
Brian Frum
All the art is so pretty but I hope humans will be involved for a very long time yet.
Layla Wilde
There will always be a human element unless robots take over the world all joking aside.
The Florida Furkids
Interesting artwork. The rabbit was a bit freaky!!! We have never tried AI but it is intriguing.
Layla Wilde
Exactly. Often it’s subtle and not noticeable until closer examination.
Amy Shojai,CABC
Mixed feelings for both the art and writing generation using AI. My dad and my aunt (pastelists and painters), brother and sister in law photographers, and another brother and SIL writers like me… our living and income derives from our own creativity. I know of voice actors also losing work because of AI (I record my own books).
That said, it can have a place when used by the original creator rather than as a derivative “new” content. For example, I’ve just started using AI voice dictation for my first draft fiction to save time. And I also use some AI VO for short videos on my blog… plus the ads on my blog now are all AI learning what/where to post to best generate income. A brave new world, indeed.
Layla Wilde
Amy, this must have touched a nerve for you to comment. Perhaps the CWA will dialogue about the ramifications of AI. I appreciate your views.
Deb Barnes
This is far too complicated to answer with a quick blog comment, but suffice it to say, as both a writer and graphic artist, I have extremely mixed feelings, most of them not positive at the moment. I’m currently busting my ass, working on a new book. The amount of research is mind-boggling and I question if AI would understand the intricacies of factual information, as we all know Google doesn’t always get everything right. Thinking someone can voice a few prompts to write for them, is somewhat insulting, although truth be told, I’ve seen some AI written stuff, and it’s pretty damn good!
I also know the incredilbe journey – the twists and turns, doors that open, friends made, etc. that comes with genuine blood, sweat, and tears of a writer going through their creative process. As far as AI art, I will admit that some of it is quite amazing and I probably would enjoy toying with it in a creative sense. I guess right now, I’m just grumpy about it. Just like the internet and social media, I didn’t take to that either, but now I use it as part of my daily life.
Anyhow, thanks for tacking a very relevant and touchy subject.
Purrs,
Deb
Layla
Deb, I’m so glad you responded. AI is a complicated topic but one as us writers and creators need to address. I hope the CWA tackles it head on.
Cathy Keisha
For our last 2 posts, we created the art using AI. Didn’t want to be left behind. I’ve never had success with Night Cafe, unfortunately, although I have used them for other art.
Layla Wilde
Thanks CK, I’ll have to check out yours. Try Nightcafe again. There are more options in a drop-down menu .
Skeeter and Izzy
Like everything it has a place I think. I am mostly a purest when it comes to art and photography. I am greatly impressed by the raw,unedited image (other than some minor cropping) more so than a jacked up “perfect image”.
Some of these do remind me of the pop art from yesteryear (bad drugs from the 60’s and 70’s mayhap LOL)
There is a potiential in many of them I think, mayhap it is Alice in Wonderland in a way………………
Luvs
Skeeter and Izzy and the Feral Gang and the Angels (one new one joined the Angels on 1/27) >^..^^..^<~
Layla Wilde
Thanks, I sure hope there is a positive side to this brave new world. Agreed about the pop art quality of some. I made a bunch on Valentines with that vibe 😹
Cat and Dog Chat With Caren
I heard about AI Art within the past week on the news. Having had a cartoonist father, (and I used to be quite talented in art), I am mixed. Yes, I think it will hurt those who make REAL art. While MANY of your creations look great, it just bothers me. I also was never a fan of computer generated art. (Digital). There are artists who do the “old fashioned” art using the tools that God gave us (our hands) and then used those “tools” by using other tools such as pencils, charcoal, paint, etc. I’m completely mixed. Part of me thinks that AI is pretty cool, the other part of me feels sorry for legitimate artists.
Layla Wilde
Caren, I feel the same way. Very mixed.
Amy Harlib
Personally, i think AI is dangerous and creepy and will destroy and enslave humanity if we do not resist.
I HATE IT AND WILL DO ANYTHING I CAN TO STOP IT.
There are no substitutes for real human creativity and imagination.
Layla Wilde
Amy, I wanted honest feedback so thank you. There will never be a substitute for human, soulful creativity but I’m hoping there will be a silver lining.
Memories of Eric and Flynn
I have been seeing various posts using AI art and some has been beautiful. Some on the other hand is just downright weird. I have thought about trying it and the programme I tried didn’t do anything when I clicked generate. Maybe I had to creat an account first.
I will try images ai as I don’t like to give my details until I have become used to a website.
Layla Morgan Wilde
Try one of my links and it should work. Enjoy exploring.