Artificial Intelligence, Genuine Nightmares

I distinctly remember the moment I was first intrigued by the possibilities of AI Art. On December 13th, 2021 I was scrolling through Twitter and breaking up the endless parade of apocalyptic news stories, vicious wisecracks and obscure movie trivia fighting for space on my feed was a puzzling and bizarre comic-grotesquerie "Elon Musk Dying in Space," created by one @wagface. No malice towards Mr. Musk, but one thing I love about Twitter is how the rich and poor, the powerful and anonymous are all trapped together in the same canvas sack, and this was a striking example of an anonymous online wise-guy turning the tools of cutting edge technology against one of the world's most pre-eminent technologists. I was also totally baffled, "What, exactly, am I looking at?" The image's melted plastic, smeared pixel future-primitive aesthetic couldn't've been more appropriate towards the subject at hand, but how was this nightmare created and what else is it capable of creating?