This Halloween, Kids News is celebrating the rapid advance of cool tools in the emerging AI age. Inspired by British freelance film editor Duncan Thomsen’s “spooktacular” images in a recent New York Post story, Kids News and visual storytelling editor Olivia Harris used Midjourney, a generative AI program that can turn your thoughts into images.
After brainstorming big names and their possible Halloween alter-egos with the Kids News team, Ms Harris created these renderings of notable figures to trick and treat you this October 31, ranging from Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to international superstar Beyoncé.
Ms Harris said the Halloween AI experiment “was the perfect opportunity to have some harmless fun” but the process was also “much harder” than she expected.
“AI can be very pedantic with the instructions it requires,” she said. “Some of the images in the reject pile should never see the light of day.”
Particularly troublesome was Prime Minister Anthony Albanese as the Wizard of Oz’s Tin Man.
“At one point he was a giant silver inflatable floating down a yellow brick road – not quite what I had in mind,” Ms Harris said. “I’d say the freakiest was getting the AI to understand what a Dalmatian is, despite giving many photo prompts. I had a lot of strange leopard/dog crosses surrounding Nicole Kidman, which I found baffling.”
The visual storyteller said she was really happy with how the project turned out, nominating Peter Dutton and Nick Cave as “among the real winners”.
“But I’d say my personal favourite is Harry Styles,” she said. “It just seems to suit him so well.”
Kids News editor Diana Jenkins said Halloween was the perfect time to experiment with transformation.
“If you think about ghoulish fairytales, ghost stories and classic gothic novels like Frankenstein, we often see a total change in the appearance and personality of the main character,” she said. “Actors alter themselves for a living, but musicians also take on a persona or character onstage – and politicians are masters at managing many faces.
“We weren’t really sure where it would lead, which was exciting, but we had a lot of fun trading names and idea.
Ms Jenkins said it was hard to pick a favourite but said she was “most proud of Chris Hemsworth’s alteration.”
“Hemsworth plays Thor, the god of thunder, so I thought turning him into Shrek would be especially funny and fun,” she said. “Changing him into everyone’s favourite ogre up-ends our associations of Hemsworth as a Hollywood heart-throb, but Olivia’s clever rendering does it in a way that is really endearing.
“I know my own kids are going to love this gallery. With everything happening in the world right now, we just thought that everyone could use a little magic dust this Halloween.”
Have a look at the full line-up and let us know your favourite in the comments below!
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