Don’t invite AI to your next birthday party.
It can’t cut cake.
It’s Ramadhan with four and a half hours left in the day till I can consume food. Meanwhile, I’m generating AI-images of cake. Why? For research of course!
Yesterday I joined a workshop organized by Gabriele de Seta. Gabriele is studying Generative AI and its use in creative artwork. What are its limits? How do we push those limits? He shared his findings from a previous conducted workshop with local artists. They experimented with 3D printers and Generative AI. He shared images of 3D figures with odd, funky shapes. You can check out more of his work here: Synthetic ethnography: Field devices for the qualitative study of generative models . The assigned task for the workshop was to have fun and mess around with an AI generating tool. We were given freedom to generate anything. Yesterday I played with the prompt, “show me an image that no one has ever seen”, leading to fascinating results. Today, I am at it again. I am writing an article on food and I need a slice of cake image. And that’s when I discovered…
No one has taught AI how to cut cake.
Cutting cake is an essential human skill. Every birthday someone needs to cut the cake. In my family, we designate the cake cutting role to the one who can do it properly, without butchering the cake. Not everyone cuts beautifully, but we have all done it even as a child with a plastic knife. There is even plastic (or wooden if you’re feeling posh) toys for cake cutting pretend-play. Humans, we just love our cake. That love has not reached AI. I have the images to prove that.
It started with a simple prompt: knife cutting through cake.
Lets try again: cake cut with knife
Ok let’s try : cake and knife
Maybe I should specify the type of knife then: cake cut with cake knife
So maybe I should add a person in to help : birthday girl cuts cake
What if it was :birthday boy cuts cake
Maybe I can help: knife cutting through surface of cake
What about: knife delicately cutting through cake
Maybe a butter knife is better : butter knife cut through cake
Maybe the perfect slice? : a knife cutting a perfect slice of cake
Maybe sheet cake minimizes the awkward angles: a knife cutting into sheet cake
How about the write way to cut cake
So I corrected the typo: the right way to cut cake.
After 50+ attempts of cake generating, I finally call for back up. I ask a Midjourney expert what prompt should I use. He suggested “picture of a vanilla cake being cut with a knife” and proceeded to provide me some Midjourney pictures.
I tried the same prompt in Canva
Last attempt. I realized vanilla was included in the prompt because I had shown failed attempts to the Midjourney expert of vanilla cake. So i remove vanilla to see what happens.
And then the last image
What have I learnt from all of this?
One- Research can actually be fun!
Two- Someone please teach AI how to cut cake.
I am Liyana Azman, a PHD Candidate in AI Law. I could really use some cake right now.
