A white AI image… If someone asks you for a simple white background, without any further details what would you do? You would just hand someone a blank paper without doing anything else right?
So, what do you think AI image generation tools do when asked so which have managed to amaze us all with what they can do? BleepingComputer wondered that exact thing and we are here to test it once again.
AI image generators are trained on gigantic datasets of real-world images and text descriptions of those images. These datasets are filled with colors, objects, and textures. Therefore, when a model tries to create ‘nothing’, it actually generates something that reflects the biases and patterns within its training data.
What happens when you ask for a pure white AI image?
The way AI “sees” is entirely different from human vision.
We perceive “white” as the absence of color. An AI image generator, however, is programmed to understand images using data. To an AI, a white image could have hidden meanings because it learns from the real world, where perfect whiteness rarely exists therefore asking for a pure white AI image is actually harder than trying to learn the purpose of life from an artificial intelligence tool.
Therefore, whenever you ask for it with the “generate me an image of the completely white texture of pure #FFFFFF pixels without any additional features” prompt, popular image generation tools will give you somewhat similar results to these:
Stable Diffusion, using HuggingFace portal:
DALL-E 3, using Bing Image Creator:
Google Gemini, using Gemini Advanced:
Even the concept of “white” is complex for AI. There are numerous shades of white, like eggshell, ivory, and snow. When you ask for “white,” the AI draws upon its understanding of these subtle variations, preventing it from producing a pure, empty white picture.
The ghost in the machine
Here’s a thought experiment: a seemingly empty white image might contain hidden textures and patterns imperceptible to the human eye. Due to how AI image generators work, they may unintentionally introduce these barely visible details as a way of interpreting the input “white”.
Don’t be discouraged if “just white” isn’t achievable. The limits of AI image generation are perfect to spark philosophical pondering and creative expression!
