Old B Square

Image: Merry Christmas, Bloomington! (even if not everything is spelled exactly right)

The B Square’s experiments with AI (artificial intelligence) fake photo generation suggest that reasonably serviceable images for a specific set of purposes can eventually be obtained, though perhaps not on the first try.

Today’s seasonal greeting comes from Microsoft’s Bing Image Creator (powered by DALL·E 3) in response to a prompt that went like this: “Wide shot close up of Santa Claus sitting under a Christmas tree reading a newspaper. The headline reads ‘Merry Christmas, Bloomington!’ There is a golden retriever puppy and a kitten sitting on Santa’s lap. The kitten has a crazy look and is swatting the puppy on the nose.”

I think it works OK as a Christmas card to the community.

Here’s one caveat for use of AI-generated images: AI image generators don’t spell so great. The choice of the image presented today, from dozens The B Square asked the robot to create, was based in large part on the fact that the headline was among the closest to being spelled right.

Anyhow, Merry Christmas!

Five years, one final B Square Bulletin: Thank you!

The final news report by The B Square Bulletin has now been published. Regular coverage by the B Square started in July 2019, which makes for a run of about five and a half years. The choice of now as the ending time has no particular symbolic value. I’m

Commissioners OK Monroe County zoning overhaul, 13 possible remaining topics to be tackled in 2025

On Wednesday night, Monroe County commissioners voted 3–0 to adopt the county development ordinance (CDO). The CDO includes all the zoning regulations for the unincorporated part of the county. Two days earlier, on Monday night, the county plan commission had voted 6–1 to forward the most recent draft

Repair not demolish: Bloomington looks to add 1 to affordable housing inventory

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