Sparsile interviewer:
What made you suddenly decide to change the cover for Chris Rush’s novel, Nocturne?
Mercat Design:
Up until recently we have been limited to using stock images to produce the covers.With a very small budget, we had to produce them in the cheapest way possible. But AI changed all that.
Sparsile interviewer:
And when did you decide artificial intelligence was the way to go?
Mercat Design:
We had been toying with the idea for a while, but we only really started using it in earnest after Christmas.
Sparsile interviewer:
So you just ask it for what you want and it produces a brilliant cover?
Mercat Design:
I wish. It’s a bit like asking a blind monkey with no hands and a recent lobotomy to understand what you are looking for.
Sparsile interviewer:
Really?
Mercat Design:
Really. It takes dozens and dozens of iterations to get AI to produce what you want for in detail.
Sparsile interviewer:
Can you explain more?
Mercat Design:
Well, try asking it for a man holding a wooden spoon and it comes back with a man with three arms which look like deformed spoons.
Sparsile interviewer:
Is there an art to talking to it?
Mercat Design:
Being very concise and not asking for too much in any one go. … Also rage.
Sparsile interviewer:
Rage helps with the design?
Mercat Design:
No, but it makes you feel a bit better after it produces a wooden spoon holding a mutant man or a perfectly formed man with a wooden spoon through his torso.
Sparsile interviewer:
So how did you use AI with the Nocturne cover?
Mercat Design:
This was a very interesting case. We had used a portrait of Chopin on our original cover, but it wasn’t the best quality and we were never really happy with it. It suddenly occurred to us to ask AI to produce a more realistic version of the artist. Something that would really pop.
Sparsile interviewer:
And AI came through for you?
Mercat Design:
After about 96 attempts, it came up with the perfect result.
Sparsile interviewer:
But you didn’t use it to produce the whole cover?
Mercat Design:
No. There was a limit to what our nerves could take. The covers still require a great deal of crafting. They look simple but, in fact, it takes hours to produce one to professional standards.
Sparsile interviewer:
So you don’t feel AI will replace you?
Mercat Design:
Not yet at least. It’s a very useful tool. A game changer for a small setup such as ourselves, but it’s not quite ready to take over the world.
Sparsile interviewer:
And what if AI turns evil?
Mercat Design:
It’s already evil. When it gave us a man with wooden spoons coming out his back, like a hedgehog, we began to suspect it was deliberately messing with us!