Computers, Computing and Technology
My! how technology is changing and impacting almost everything we do. In this section, I will demonstrate how I am keeping pace with the changes and how I am also experimenting with this modern phenomenon in everyday life. So far, it has been fun, so watch this space.
Using AI to Make a Song
Messing about with AI, I one day gave Copilot some criteria about my wife Maureen and asked it to write me a song for Maureen.
The result was amazing, so quick, Copilot came up with the words for a song and gave the keys that it thought the music should be set to. I asked Copilot to arrange the soundtrack. Unfortunately, Copilot was unable to do that, so as a fix, it recommended another AI platform that would be able to do this. Copilot then put the song in the correct format for the next music AI platform so I could literally cut and paste with.
The platform was Suno AI Music. Once I had cut and paste the lyrics into this platform, it asked me the genre I wanted and after hitting the "go" button, it took about two minutes for AI to produce the song in 4 different versions so I could pick the one I liked best.
You can hear the song that was produced using the play button above.
AI as a helping tool for Photography Disasters
I recently made a visit to Brocksbush Farm in Northumberland to see the Tulip fields in full bloom. There had been a lot of publicity about the event and when booking it was obvious from the lack of slots available that it would be a popular attraction. I went with my Canon EOS R50 camera in hand with the intention of getting lots of spectacular photos. I was not disappointed when I arrived, the weather was fabulous with lots of sunshine and many visitors as expected. I was very busy with my camera and took loads of photos. I was very excited when I got home to check them out and see what memories I had created. Sadly, I was devasted to realise that I had left my camera on the wrong setting and all of my images were almost whitened out due to over exposure.
I have attached some of them here for you to see the poor images.
Thinking about how I might be able to salvage something good from my day, AI came to mind. Could AI really help with fixing this for me? I hope so as I had never successfully achieved a photo recovery of this magnitude before. Anyway, I decided to give it a try and here are the results. I used Microsoft Copilot and started by drag and dropping a photo into the chat bar and asking Copilot, "Can you fix my photo?"
As you can see, the difference is amazing.
What I was amazed to discover, though, is that after these results, I asked Copilot how it did it. Copilot provided a full breakdown of the actions it had taken. While on a roll, I told Copilot that I had Affinity Photo Software and asked it if it could help me do the alterations myself.
To my surprise, Copilot produced a full and in-depth tutorial for me and explained how to use each part of the software for each change. Wow! Such a powerful assistant, and what a result in saving my memories of the day.
There were many more photos that I have managed to recover from Brocksbush Farm, but I have only used these four as examples of what can be done. I fully recommend giving it a go.
Playing with AI
Recently I have been playing with AI and trying to get to grips with what it can do. I feel that the more familiar I become with using it, the more I will find to use it for.
I started with a few caricatures from photos and then turning those images into something useful like greeting cards. A few images from my first attempts are shown here.
I am pretty impressed with the results, but the quality of the output from AI is very dependent upon what you put in.
Be sure to use command words like "Create", "Design" in the first instance and then descriptive words about your required output ie "Printable", an image of the person if you want caricatures. Colour themes or product themes also help.
Most of all be prepared to experiment and learn.
Most of these caricatures have been created using Chatgpt, although the one on the bottom right was created using Microsoft Copilot. Of the two, I prefer Copilot as there are fewer limits on the free version. Chatgpt does allow you to make around 4 images for free but requires you to purchase a membership. Microsoft includes Copilot in the Microsoft package.
It is great fun just having a go, so I would recommend it to anyone, regardless of experience, and just be prepared to learn and reshape your instructions as you go. AI tools will also help you to get where you need to be by giving you prompts along the way. It is so interactive.