Reddit Impressed, Twitter Horrified By Midjourney AI Take On 'Real Life Simpsons'
The time-honored tradition of reimagining cartoon characters as real human beings has hit AI art, as Tuesday, a Redditor went to Midjourney to create photorealistic interpretations of characters in The Simpsons — with some interesting results.
In /r/Midjourney, Redditor Crows_HeadIC posted AI interpretations of 20 Simpsons characters as real-life people. The post was very well-received, gaining over 38,000 points in three days, though commenters there noted several of the creations were "too good looking" as opposed to the vibe they give off in the actual cartoon.
This criticism was voiced particularly loudly when the Reddit post was reposted to Twitter by user @_akhaliq, as users were gobsmacked by the interpretation of Marge as a skinny, blue-haired white woman who appears to be in her mid-20s.
On Reddit, some hypothesized that the Redditor's interpretation of Marge Simpson wasn't a result of his own sexual fantasies, but because Midjourney was building from a stereotype "blue hair" signifies. One could argue that the "Marge Simpson" interpretation is closer to the "Democrat Protestor" conjured by Midjourney in a recent controversy when a user asked Midjourney to make a "crying blue-haired feminist" to signify a "Democrat Protestor."
Whatever the excuse behind the decidedly un-Marge-like Marge is, the rest of the interpretations didn't fare well on Twitter, as many felt the creations weren't very impressive.
One user also decided enough was enough and demanded an explanation from Elon Musk, writing, "@elonmusk why these posts appearing on my timeline? Issue is not that I don’t follow, but exceptionally poor in quality."