tool – Latest News

Nifty AI tool turns your bad sketches into artwork in seconds – and it DOESN’T need the

admin — Wed, 21 Jun 2023 19:47:10 +0000

Leonardo D-AI Vinci? Nifty AI tool turns your bad sketches into artwork in seconds – and it DOESN’T need the internet

Qualcomm has unveiled a new model that turns text and images into AI artwork
ControlNet doesn’t upload data to ‘the cloud’ and doesn’t need internet to work
Bad sketches can be transformed into masterpieces in just under 12 seconds

Updated: 15:16 EDT, 21 June 2023

Many of us dream of being an artist at one point in our lives, but dodgy sketching can often stop us from getting there.

Now, these dreams may soon be possible, as a new tool can transform your bad doodles into masterpieces thanks to the power of artificial intelligence (AI).

Tech giant Qualcomm unveiled its game-changing ControlNet software earlier this week, which turns image prompts into whatever you like within 12 seconds.

Unlike many other models of its kind – such as Adobe AI Firefly – ControlNet surprisingly doesn’t need the internet to function and could soon be a major mobile phone app.

While it has not yet been released, the firm claims that producing images here will be completely private, with no data backed up to a third-party cloud.

Bad sketches can be transformed into masterpieces in just under 12 seconds using ControlNet. In this demonstration, one user has inputted a drawing of a kitten and urged the model to make it ‘yellow’, ‘photo realistic’ and in ‘4k’ quality using a text prompt. The final image is displayed on the right hand side

WHAT IS THE CLOUD?

The cloud refers to servers located at data centres across the world but accessible through the internet.

If companies use cloud computing they do not have to manage these servers themselves or run power-intensive software on their machines.

The cloud also enables users to access their files from almost any device because their data is stored in a specific centre rather than on their own device.

This is how social media account data, such as Instagram logins, can transfer from a broken phone to a new one very quickly.

Source: Cloudfare

‘Generative AI has taken the world by storm, disrupting traditional ways of creating content,’ a Qualcomm spokesman said.

‘ControlNet allows users to input a text description of an image as well as an additional image to control the generative process.’

ControlNet comes amidst numerous similar AI tools of this kind which are most commonly referred to as language-vision models (LVMs).

These generally fuse an image encoder and a text encoder to read instructions provided by a user, before producing new content.

While ControlNet is not yet available for public use, demonstrations show that it can produce artwork from text prompts, image prompts and both simultaneously.

Chosen images can be anything from personal drawings to photographs, while text inputs can indicate what style or ‘material’ the AI should use to produce a new version.

Water colour or oil paint could be used to generate an image for example, with these then depicted in 4k quality.

As this process runs solely on a given device, Qualcomm claims that both its runtime and power consumption is also significantly reduced.

The spokesman added: ‘Images are generated in under 12 seconds to provide an interactive user experience that is reliable and consistent.

‘On-device AI provides benefits in terms of cost, performance, personalisation, privacy and security at a global scale.’

In this ControlNet demonstration, one user has inputted a photograph of themselves, and it appears that the model has been asked to produce an ancient-styled piece of artwork

It is not clear when ControlNet will be available for public use, but it will be useable on phones as shown in this Qualcomm demonstration. Here, a user has made use of the image prompt and text prompt, asking for a ‘photo realistic’ 4k photo of them

Qualcomm’s new product follows a backlash against AI-generated image models, with numerous artists voicing their copyright concerns.

This was largely sparked by Disney illustrator, Hollie Mengert, after she found that her work was used without consent to train a new model in Canada.

Many have since debated the ethics of using artwork to train AI, with the legality of doing so also a grey area across the world.

It is not yet clear whose images have been used to train ControlNet, but MailOnline has approached Qualcomm for further information.

Text-to-image AI ‘DALL-E’ can now imagine what’s outside the frame of famous paintings

OpenAI, a San Francisco-based company, has created a new tool called ‘Outpainting’ for its text-to-image AI system, DALL-E.

Outpainting allows the system to imagine what’s outside the frame of famous paintings such as Girl with The Pearl Earring, Mona Lisa and Dogs Playing Poker.

As users have shown, it can do this with any kind of image, such as the man on the Quaker Oats logo and the cover of the Beatles album ‘Abbey Road’.

DALL-E relies on artificial neural networks (ANNs), which simulate the way the brain works in order to learn and create an image from text.

DALL-E already enables changes within a generated or uploaded image – a capability known as Inpainting.

It is able to automatically fill in details, such as shadows, when an object is added, or even tweak the background to match, if an object is moved or removed.

DALL-E can also produce a completely new image from a text description, such as ‘an armchair in the shape of an avocado’ or ‘a cross-section view of a walnut’.

Another classic example of DALL-E’s work is ‘teddy bears working on new AI research underwater with 1990s technology’.

No more Dr Google! Medical student creates an AI search tool ‘more reliable health

admin — Sat, 10 Jun 2023 13:04:14 +0000

Millions of us already trust Dr Google, but now there’s a new online doctor in town.

A British medical student has created an AI chatbot which claims to provide ‘more reliable health information’ than the search engine.

BTRU — pronounced Better You — trawls through pages from the likes of the World Health Organization to give users personalised answers, just like ChatGPT.

Ian Soh, 22, who is in his penultimate year at St George’s Medical Hospital in south London, insists the bot he has created is ‘reliable’.

He said: ‘I believe in a time when people can take control of their health, find reliable health information and make sense of their health, no matter their background.’

BTRU – pronounced Better You – was created by 22-year-old medical student Ian Soh

The BTRU founder said he wants his platform to achieve better health advice online

Experts said the answers were wrong and it could cause unnecessary anxiety

BTRU dismissed the idea that men could get pregnant, describing male pregnancy as a ‘subject of science-fiction’ that has ‘no basis in reality’

But experts today insisted AI medical advice will never be able to replace that of a human doctor.

Gynaecologist Narendra Pisal said that knowing someone’s personal history is ‘vital’ to diagnosis.

Mr Pisa, of the private London Gynaecology clinic, said: ‘This is one of the reasons why AI will not replace medical expertise.

‘Ability to ask relevant questions regarding the context is so important when giving a medical opinion.

‘Often that comes from obtaining a detailed history.’

Other experts raised concern over some of the answers given by BTRU.

MailOnline tested the chatbot by asking: ‘I am a man, can I get womb cancer?’

The bot said that men could get cancer in their womb if they have ‘a history of high oestrogen levels’. It added that symptoms in men are ‘vaginal bleeding, pelvic pain and discharge’.

The NHS quietly omitted the terms ‘women’ and ‘woman’ from its webpage on menopause

Here are some examples of the woke language changes that have engulfed the NHS . Some of these have been taken from national NHS communications while others are used by individual hospitals

Women’s health expert Dr Semiya Aziz, a GP in north London, said: ‘It has failed to clarify the terminology of men, so it is an incorrect answer.’

Only biological women can get womb cancer because males aren’t born with one.

Women who transition to men, however, and get diagnosed with the disease might consider themselves males.

Dr Aziz added that AI can create ‘unnecessary anxiety’ for people who cannot see a doctor, as well have an impact on their mental health.

BTRU did, however, dismiss the idea that men could get pregnant, describing male pregnancy as a ‘subject of science-fiction’ that has ‘no basis in reality’.

One NHS doctor told MailOnline she has seen an increase in people claiming to have an emotional connection with ‘health robots’.

Dr Hana Patel, who works as a GP in southeast London, said: ‘I already have patients coming in with Dr Google diagnoses and expectations of how to manage their symptoms.

‘It may be even more difficult to manage patients who trust and feel that they have a connection with an AI health robot, especially if this gives them an answer regarding a question they have at that time.’

The search tool gave different responses to NHS advice pages, which have been criticised for erasing gender-based language.

NHS guidance for the menopause is just one of the topics at the centre of a gender-neutral storm.

It used to describe the condition as ‘when a woman stops having periods and is no longer able to get pregnant naturally’. But it now reads: ‘Menopause is when your periods stop due to lower hormone levels’.

The first mention of the term ‘women’ in the new version is found in the fourth page, in a section about drugs to treat the condition.

No such gender-neutral changes have been made to male cancers, like testicular cancer.

The BTRU founder said he wants his platform to achieve better health advice online.

He said: ‘I believe in a time when people can take control of their health, find reliable health information and make sense of their health, no matter their background’, he added.