Teaching & AI

'Modern' Philosophers by DALL·E 2

1 minute read

DALL·E 2 is OpenAI’s much vaunted language model derivation which generates images from text prompts. I’ve previously used similar models to generate images of evidence hierarchies and evidence in medicine.

An interesting approach to use AI image generation is to transpose subject matter into novel contexts. For instance, you might task DALL·E 2 with depicting ancient and early modern philosophers as they’d look pontificating their way around a modern university campus.

Aristotle:

DALL·E 2 image of Aristotle dressed in modern Western clothing at a modern university

Immanuel Kant:

DALL·E 2 image of Immanuel Kant as a modern man in modern clothes at a university

Plato:

DALL·E 2 image of Plato as a modern man

“You were so preoccupied with whether or not you could, you didn’t stop to think if you should.”

21st-century Immanuel Kant, probably.

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