Text-to-image generation is the hot algorithmic process right now, with OpenAI's Craiyon (formerly DALL-E mini) and Google's Imagen AIs unleashing tidal waves of wonderfully weird procedurally generated art synthesized from human and computer imaginations. On Tuesday, Meta revealed that it too has developed an AI image generation engine, one that it hopes will help to build immersive worlds in the Metaverse and create high digital art. A lot of work into creating an image based on just the phrase, "there's a horse in the hospital," when using a generation AI. First the phrase itself is fed through a transformer model, a neural network that parses the words of the sentence and develops a contextual understanding of their relationship to one another. Once it gets the gist of what the user is describing, the AI will synthesize a new image using a set of GANs (generative adversarial networks).

Generative art is anything that couples a code, or set of instructions, with a series of artificial events that can output endless variations, be it baskets, paintings, or NFTs. Before using computers, --a pioneer of generative art and one of the first women to use computers in her practice--created algorithmic art with nothing more than a pencil and a piece of paper. However, generative art before computers is a bit like astronomy before the telescope. Certain fields do not come into their own until a tool that bridges the gap between circumscribed human experience and uncircumscribed human imagination comes along. And that, with the advancement of computers and AI, is very much the case with generative art.

There is a common belief among techies these days that with the arrival of AI and algorithms, professions such as those that of artists are becoming extinct. Art made by AI or algorithmic art is certainly beautiful, unique and in some cases, novel but it is still not capable of replacing traditional art. Algorithmic art is always derivative. That's not to say that the algorithms can't produce exceptional and distinctive images. My personal favorite are the images produced by the Deep Art algorithm.

We live in a world that's increasingly controlled by what might be called "the algorithmic gaze." As we cede more decision-making power to machines in domains like health care, transportation, and security, the world as seen by computers becomes the dominant reality. If a facial recognition system doesn't recognize the color of your skin, for example, it won't acknowledge your existence.If a self-driving car can't see you walk across the road, it'll drive right through you. That's the algorithmic gaze in action.

We live in a world that's increasingly controlled by what might be called "the algorithmic gaze." As we cede more decision-making power to machines in domains like health care, transportation, and security, the world as seen by computers becomes the dominant reality. If a facial recognition system doesn't recognize the color of your skin, for example, it won't acknowledge your existence. If a self-driving car can't see you walk across the road, it'll drive right through you. That's the algorithmic gaze in action.