More than half of Australian office workers report using generative artificial intelligence (AI) in their work, with technology poised to touch every part of society, from banking and finance to weather forecasting, health and medicine. We are beginning to see that it is having an impact.
Many people now use AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini to get advice, find information, and summarize long texts. However, our recent research shows how generative AI can be used in other ways and can return results in a variety of formats.
On the other hand, AI tools are neutral and can be used for better or worse depending on the user's intentions.
However, the models powering such tools can also be subject to biases based on how they were developed. AI tools, especially image generation tools, are also power-hungry and are gradually increasing global energy usage.
Additionally, there are unresolved copyright claims surrounding the AI-generated output, given that the content used to train some models is not owned by the organizations developing the AI. .
But ultimately, there is no escape from generative AI. Learning more about what these tools can do will help you become more digitally literate and fully understand their impact, from the benign to the problematic.
Read more: AI to Z: All the terms you need to know to stay on top of the AI hype
1. Imagine what's beyond the frame
Adobe's recently developed “Generation Extension” tool allows users to extend the canvas of a photo and force Photoshop to “imagine” what's happening outside the frame. Nine News infamously experimented with the tool in a broadcast featuring Victorian politician Georgie Purcell.
Here's a video showing how this tool works:
But it can also be used more innocently, for example, to extend the boundaries of landscape or still life images. You may do this when trying to edit a square Instagram photo to fit his 4×6 inch photo frame.
2. Visualize the past or future
Photography was invented within the last 200 years, and smartphones with cameras were invented within the last 25 years.
So there are still a lot of things that existed before cameras, but you might want to visualize them. This may be for educational, entertainment, or reflective purposes.
An example is the work of historical figures such as architect Robert Russell, who conducted the first survey of present-day Melbourne in 1836. He wrote at the time:
The soil of this country is better than any of the colonies, it has good grazing land and a good water supply, it has excellent ports, and much capital (I'm afraid to say how much) has been spent on it. Towns, enterprising settlers and flocks multiplied on every side, there was a climate suitable for the English, and events were occurring which accelerated the need for a long-term emigration program whose benefits we would soon feel. Ta.
You can enter this text from Russell's letter into a text image generator to see what the area looked like.
Midjourney images by TJ Thomson
Conversely, we may want to look to the future and see if AI can help us visualize what will happen in the future.
For example, the spacecraft is currently headed for 16 Psyche, a metallic asteroid never seen before. It is predicted to reach the asteroid in 2029. You can feed a description from NASA into an AI tool to get a rough idea of what an asteroid is like.
Midjourney images by TJ Thomson
NASA is currently working with artists to illustrate invisible concepts, but artists can also leverage AI to create these renderings.
3. Brainstorm ways to visualize difficult concepts
While we may once have relied on Google images or Pinterest boards for visual inspiration, AI can also help with suggestions on how to look at subjects that are difficult to visualize.
Take the Mariana Trench, for example. As it is one of the deepest places on Earth, few people have seen it in person. It's pitch black and you can't see very far with artificial light.
However, when we asked the AI for suggestions on how to visualize this spot, it found that it could feature more familiar landmarks such as Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building, or scale it next to the ditch to make it easier for spectators to enter. You can get various ideas such as arranging the model. To experience its depth.
Or create a layered illustration showing the plants and animals that live in each of the five zones of the ocean above the ocean trenches.
4. Data visualization
Depending on the tool, you can also prompt the AI with numbers in addition to text.
For example, you can upload a spreadsheet to ChatGPT 4 and ask them to visualize the results. Or, if the data is already publicly available (such as Earth's population trends), you can ask a chatbot to visualize it without providing a spreadsheet.
Gemini image by TJ Thomson
It's a great way to speed up tasks like this, as long as you keep in mind that the AI can “hallucinate” or make things up, so you need to double-check the accuracy of the results .
Read more: Misinformation: How fact-checking journalism is evolving and having a real impact on the world
5. Create a simple video
You can create simple yet effective animations by uploading photos to AI tools like Runway and giving them animation commands like zoom in, zoom out, and tracking from left to right. That's what I did with this historic photograph held at the State Library of Western Australia.
TJ Thomson
Another way to try video is to use Runway's text-to-video converter to describe the scene you want to see and have it create a video for you. I created the following video using this instruction.
Tracking shot from left to right of a snowy mountain in Nagano Prefecture. The clouds hang low around the mountain, and the distance is about 50 meters.
TJ Thomas
6. Generating color palettes or simple graphics
Maybe you're creating a logo for your small business or helping a friend design an event invitation. In these cases, using a consistent color palette can help unify your design.
You can ask a generative AI service like Midjourney or Gemini to create a color palette based on your event and its mood.
Midjourney images by TJ Thomson
If you're designing a website or poster and need an icon to represent a specific part of your message, you can have AI generate the icon for you. This is true for both browser-based generators like Adobe Firefly and desktop apps with built-in AI like Adobe Illustrator.
Next time you interact with a generative AI chatbot, ask what it can do for you. In addition to these six use cases, you might be surprised to learn that generative AI can also write code, translate content, create music, and describe images. This is useful for creating alternative text descriptions or making her web more accessible to people with visual impairments.
