AI Vignette for 010323
As with the vignettes created for my book, “AI Vignettes: Chimeras, Wraiths and more”, vignettes for my blog will comprise two components: The first is an image generated by a minimal text prompt to DALL-E, which importantly lacks any style or formatting instructions, allowing the AI free reign in interpretation. The second component is a very short story generated from a (typically slightly elaborated) version of the DALL-E prompt. Stories are generated by either ChatGPT or the text-davinci-003 model for GPT-3. Images are first generation and not subject to editing or variations. Stories may be lightly edited for such things as punctuation, paragraph spacing and pronoun consistency.
The header for each vignette will be the GPT prompt, which is typically a superset of the DALL-E prompt:
A perceptron stands guard at the river Styx, while waiting for relief
It was a dark and foggy night, and the perceptron stood guard at the river Styx, the dividing line between the world of the living and the world of the dead. It was a lonely and thankless job, but someone had to do it.
The perceptron had been programmed to keep watch over the river, and to allow only those who were meant to cross to do so. It was a simple task, but one that required vigilance and attention to detail.
As the hours ticked by, the perceptron stood at its post, its sensors scanning the river for any sign of movement. It had been doing this for what seemed like an eternity, and it was starting to feel the strain.
Just when it thought it couldn’t take it anymore, a glimmer of light appeared on the horizon. The perceptron’s sensors perked up, and it prepared to do its duty.
As the light grew closer, the perceptron could see that it was a boat, carrying the legendary ferryman, Charon. Charon had come to relieve the perceptron of its duties, and to take over the task of transporting the souls of the dead across the river.
The perceptron let out a sigh of relief as Charon approached, and it stepped aside to let him pass. As the boat disappeared into the fog, the perceptron couldn’t help but feel a sense of pride and accomplishment for having completed its task. And so, the perceptron stood guard at the river Styx, waiting for the next time it would be called upon to serve.
