Generated with Dream by WOMBO

AI’s attempt to draw a cute Pikachu creates nightmare fuel, shocks Japanese social media

Artificial intelligence is capable of creating original artwork using something called GAN (Generative Adversarial Network). There are apps now available to create this so-called GAN art, often producing very surprising results.

In Japan, Vtuber Mesa Gonda, AKA Virtual Shark Man (@same_dagon) tried to see what kind of art would be generated with the Dream by WOMBO AI app if he told it to draw Pikachu, fully expecting something cute and happy...

The results the app came up with were not only completely unexpected, but they were also downright scary. See for yourself:

"Here's a 'wild Pikachu living in Tokiwa Forest' which I had AI draw for me"

"This one's my personal favorite."

Mesa Gonda decided to give up on having his AI app draw a cute Pikachu and went all in, exploring the dark potential of GAN art...

"I gave up on cute Pikachu and asked the AI to draw me 'Pikachu living in the world of Dark Souls.' I haven't played Dark Souls, though..."

We thought maybe it all depended on the prompt used in the app, so we downloaded it and tried asking the app to generate art with the prompt: "Pikachu love fest," hoping we'd get more wholesome results...

Generated with Dream by WOMBO

So much for that...At least there's a heart.

Mesa Gonda's original Tweet has garnered over 55,000 likes at the time of writing, eliciting comments such as:

  • "Maybe that's his real form and we've been looking at a fabricated version all along..."
  • "A post-nuclear Pokemon world"
  • "That's a Narehate version of Pikachu"
  • "Haven't I seen that in Made in Abyss?"

Maybe you'll have better luck?

By - grape Japan editorial staff.

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