Here’s the prompt PG provided DALL·E 2 at OpenAI;
create a military science fiction book cover featuring a full-page image of a strong female soldier in battle gear, digital art
Here are the four images the AI generated (PG doesn’t know why the AI cut off part of the heads):
And the same prompt with the gender changed: create a military science fiction book cover featuring a full-page image of a strong male soldier in battle gear, digital art
PG noted that the AI provided each of its female images with certain similar secondary sex characteristics while he didn’t observe an equivalent similarity of secondary characteristics among the male AI images that deviated from what he regards as the norm.
That’s as far as PG is going to go on this topic.
He reminds visitors to TPV to tailor their comments to the standards of polite society while showing respect towards those of varying genders.
There are, surprisingly, a fair amount of *serious* youtube videos on the matter of female armor in history, fiction, and art.
Shadiversity has a whole bunch of long ones but this lady has a nicely balanced look at the matter:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=60lU68oyxK4
I figured before even clicking the link that had to be Jill Bearup. She and Shadiversity should be required viewing.
1- The heads got cut off because the app is limited to a square form factor and it “wanted” to get close to the subject. You have to specify the zoom level to get the fullbody or whatever.
2- The free MS art app uses the same DALL-E 3 Open AI charges for, instead of the free Dall-E 2.
https://copilot.microsoft.com/images/create
By all reports it is much better. Still limited to square pics, though. The paid version is the only one that supports a different aspect ratio.
They *really* want you to pay the $20. 😉
As to the female armor, at least it didn’t go with the, ahem, dual cones. Those actually look functional. And the ladies might be wearing gambesons underneath. 😉
The AI is only following it’s training materials. In fairness to it, so will just about any human cover artist. (“Just about.” A very few have deviated from the trope, and received critical acclaim – and seriously damaged sales.)
Note that in the male covers, what is present in all is an impassive face and, where the eyes are open, they communicate “cold blooded killer.” That style is not quite as ubiquitous as the secondary female characteristics – but is still the majority from what I have seen.
(Someday, I will have time to play with AI myself. The first prompt I am probably going to try is “Produce a cover for a science fiction novel in the style of the 1970’s.” I wonder whether the database has ingested the same mind-altering substances that most cover artists had obviously taken in that period.)