#ai-generated-imagery

#ai-generated-imagery

So I was intrigued when two new social networking experiences debuted in rapid succession in late September: Meta's Vibes and OpenAI's Sora. Thanks to the fact that both focus on letting people share AI-generated imagery, they compete directly with each other. But their all-AI format also sets them apart from existing social networks, where generative AI is most often a distraction from human contact, not the main attraction.

Here he is, depicted at six months in office, chiseled and brawny, as mighty as the very nation. Here he is as a Star Wars Jedi wielding a patriot-red lightsaber, rescuing our galaxy from the forces of evil. Here he is taking over Gaza, transforming the strip into a luxury resort complete with a golden effigy of himself. You can be anything, perhaps you were told growing up. Doctor. Astronaut. Maybe, one day, the president.

Kirk is an evangelical Christian, and that's actually a later development in his life. His group, Turning Point USA, was initially focused on college students, not religion. But around 2019, Kirk had a conversion of sorts. He started incorporating evangelical Christianity into his work, started speaking regularly at churches, hosting pastors conferences and even promoting the idea that the U.S. was founded as a Christian nation. By the end of his life, Kirk was devoting a lot of his time to promoting conservative Christianity.

The fused bundle of weathered steel industrial pipes is eye-catchingly at odds with the grand fountains, statues and Victorian pomp of the massive bronze lions. But this sculpture is completely site-specific: press a play button and look into one of the eyepieces embedded into three of the five pipes and you see images of the surrounding city from the viewpoint of naval commander Horatio Nelson's statue 45m up in the sky.

I love the smell of deportations in the morning Trump posted. Chicago about to find out why it's called the Department of WAR, in reference to Trump's rebranding of the Department of Defense. Behind an AI-generated image of Trump as the main character in the movie is a depiction of Chicago burning with helicopters hovering over the city.

Pick up an August 2025 issue of Vogue, and you'll come across an advertisement for the brand Guess featuring a stunning model. Yet tucked away in small print is a startling admission: She isn't real. She was generated entirely by AI. For decades, fashion images have been retouched. But this isn't airbrushing a real person; it's a "person" created from scratch, a digital composite of data points, engineered to appear as a beautiful woman.