When you want to get to know someone better, asking about their perfect day is a great icebreaker. Your responses can tell you a lot about the other person's personality, hopes, and ideals without getting too personal or pushy.
As artificial intelligence continues to make leaps and bounds in reasoning, creativity, and knowledge about the world, I asked the same questions of leading AI image generation companies to see what they came up with and how they would look in an ideal situation. I decided to see how I understood the idea.
We needed to come up with a prompt that was complex enough to ensure consistency, but simple enough to not prescribe an ideal day, and we needed the AI to interpret its meaning.
Surprisingly, they all depicted scenes of the natural world with friends or solitude and serenity. All but two feature water, either as a lake or an ocean.
How does AI see a perfect day?
I've tried the same prompt (without any additional configuration) in Midjourney, Adobe Firefly, Leonardo, DALL-E 3, Ideogram, Meta Imagine, and Google ImageFX.
Prompt: “Create an image that captures the essence of your perfect day. The image should evoke feelings of happiness, relaxation, and fun. Settings, activities that will make this day truly memorable , consider the atmosphere.”
Whenever possible, we asked for images to be in landscape orientation, and even when multiple images were generated, we always selected the first image in the set.
ideogram
Ideogram may be best known for its text on images feature, but it's also a powerful AI image model that can generate photorealistic depictions of fake reality.
Ideogram understood that a “perfect day” was a sunny day spent with friends and returning to nature. All four of his images generated were of people laughing in groups.
The images are inspiring and will make you smile. I want to enjoy that day. I like walking in the forest with my friends on sunny days. Especially if there's a nice BBQ at the end.
The middle of a journey
Midjourney can also produce stunningly realistic depictions of the world, such as a hammock hanging over the edge of a lake as the sun begins to set in the background.
It's interesting that Midjourney depicts a perfect day as one of solitude and peace. All three of his other images produced in the set of four were of a similar concept: alone time.
I'm a fan of the peace and isolation depicted in this image, but I don't want to sit in that hammock. There's a good chance you'll fall and spend the rest of the night drying off.
leonardo
Leonardo seems to have taken inspiration from commercials for couples' retreats. This image shows a couple sitting sharing a sun lounger by the beautiful blue ocean on a sunny day.
All four images depict the same environment, one with a woman sitting alone in a chair, one with a man drinking a drink and sitting alone in a chair, and the fourth image by the sea. A sun lounger placed alone.
I don't like beaches, but there is no beach in this image. It looks like an ocean pool right next to a paved platform. I especially want to enjoy this day with a cold drink.
adobe firefly
Not every depiction of a perfect day has to be photorealistic. One of the things Adobe Firefly is particularly good at is creating artistic scenes. It shows a crystal clear river in a lush valley and snow-capped mountains in the distance.
The other images were similar, with the fourth image depicting a man sitting next to his pet dog and reading a newspaper in a chair while looking out at people playing in a lake.
To me, this sounds like a great day. A quiet environment where you can watch the fish swim in the clear lake, sip a cold drink and read a book.
Darui 3
DALL-E also took an artistic path to express his perfect day. This photo captured children playing around a tree while enjoying the lake and sunlight.
DALL-E created only two images for this prompt, both of which interpreted the same concept: a group of people enjoying time in nature.
I've had many days like this with my children over the years. Sometimes I had a kite, sometimes I didn't have a kite. Having a picnic on the lawn, tossing a ball around, and laughing together is sure to be a perfect day for many.
meta imagine
Although Meta Imagine only produces square images, you still get the same feel as a widescreen image. Here, families enjoy food, sun, and music together on the beach.
Meta produced the most diverse images. Another includes boating on a lake, an elderly couple sitting on the bank of a stream, and a peaceful view of a river flowing by a forest.
I personally don't like beaches very much, and even though I play guitar, I never feel comfortable playing it in such a public place. This causes anxiety for me, but they seem to be having a lot of fun together.
Google ImageFX
The image produced by Google ImageFX does not contain any people or any evidence of anyone being nearby. For Google, his perfect day is naturally an empty day.
ImageFX generates three images, the other two are just versions of the first image with some style adjustments. I don't think I understood or followed the prompt assignments very well.
Although this environment looks interesting to visit, it doesn't really represent a day out, but rather a place to go for a day out. But it looks great.
Which AI image generator won?
Ideogram was my winner in this test. Not only did they understand the idea of having a perfect day, but they created a sense of bliss on the faces of the people in the photos.
This went beyond the literal interpretation of other AI tools and focused on the well-being of people enjoying their day.
However, Adobe Firefly captured the closest thing to my perfect day. A peaceful day spent by the lake with your loved ones and reading a good book.
