Dall-E Mini, the AI-powered text-to-image generator has taken over the internet. With its ability to render nearly anything your meme-loving heart desires, anyone can make their dreams come true.
DALL-E 2, a portmanteau of Salvador Dali, the surrealist and Wall-E, the Pixar robot, was created by OpenAI and is not widely available; it creates far cleaner imagery and was recently used to launch Cosmpolitan’s first AI-generated cover. The art world has been one of the first industries to truly embrace AI.
The open-sourced miniature version is what’s responsible for the memes. Programmer Boris Dayma wants to make AI more accessible; he built the Dall-E Mini program as part of a competition held by Google and an AI community called Hugging Face.
And with great technology, comes great memes. Typing a short phrase into Dall-E Mini will manifest 9 different amalgamations, theoretically shaping into reality the strange images you’ve conjured. Its popularity leads to too much traffic, often resulting in an error that can be fixed by refreshing the page or trying again later.
If you want to be a part of the creation of AI-powered engines, it all starts with code. CodeAcademy explains that Dall-E Mini is a seq2seq model, “typically used in natural language processing (NLP) for things like translation and conversational modeling.” CodeAcademy’s Text Generation course will teach you how to utilize seq2seq, but they also offer opportunities to learn 14+ coding languages at your own pace.
You can choose the Machine Learning Specialist career path if you want to become a Data Scientist who develops these types of programs, but you can also choose courses by language, subject (what is cybersecurity?) or even skill - build a website with HTML, CSS, and more.
CodeAcademy offers many classes for free as well as a free trial; it’s an invaluable resource for giving people of all experience levels the fundamentals they need to build the world they want to see.
As for Dall-E Mini, while some have opted to create beauty, most have opted for memes. Here are some of the internet’s favorites:
pic.twitter.com/DbLoe1s00c
— Weird Dall-E Mini Generations (@weirddalle) June 8, 2022
pic.twitter.com/cxtliOrlHz
— Weird Dall-E Mini Generations (@weirddalle) June 12, 2022
no fuck every other dall-e image ive made this one is the best yet pic.twitter.com/iuFNm4UTUM
— bri (@takoyamas) June 10, 2022
pic.twitter.com/rEBHoWR7lH
— Weird Dall-E Mini Generations (@weirddalle) June 12, 2022
pic.twitter.com/RSZaCIDVV7
— Chairman George (@superbunnyhop) June 9, 2022
back at it again at the DALL•E mini pic.twitter.com/iPGsaMThBC
— beca. ⚢ (@dorysief) June 9, 2022
There’s no looking back now, not once you’ve seen Pugachu; artificial intelligence is here to stay.
How to Support Evacuations from Afghanistan
With Afghanistan in chaos and government and military resources strained to the limit, small, decentralized groups have been making a difference in the evacuation of American citizens and Afghans in danger.
One of the most effective has been The World Is My Country Foundation, a Texas non-profit agency that provides relevant, necessary, and efficient aid to those in need around the world regardless of race, religion, or gender. Founded by a 13-year veteran of the US Special Forces, the organization is working on a clearly defined mission.
With air evacuations being handled by other agencies, The World Is My Country Foundation is focusing on ground transportation. A GoFundMe Page titled GROUND OPTION: Emergency Ground Movements has raised close to $125,000 in less than two weeks. The team consists of a decentralized network of former Special Forces soldiers, intelligence officers, trusted Afghan allies, and volunteers working together to rescue the endangered.
It is said that the scale of these evacuation efforts is comparable to that of Dunkirk - the Allied Forces' evacuation in which more than 330,000 British, French, and Polish soldiers were cut off and surrounded by the Nazis in the spring of 1940. The Foundation has been extraordinarily successful in getting American citizens, Afghan interpreters, and other friendlies out of harm's way.
But more help – and funds – are required. And here's why:
The situation continues to deteriorate
"It's really bad," an anonymous source close to the effort says. "Kabul airport has been difficult to reach in good circumstances due to checkpoints and chokepoints, but the bombings yesterday have greatly hindered evacuation efforts. In addition, there's imperfect information about who needs to be rescued, where they are, and their current status."
Time is running out
"This is a chaotic environment, but the team is trusted and proven in working under extreme circumstances and duress," says the source, "and there's a small window between now and the August 31 pullout to make things happen."
A matter of life and death
Afghans who worked with American soldiers and citizens face severe – and fatal – reprisals from the Taliban. Interpreters, translators, Journalists, English language teachers, and government workers – to name only a few – fear the worst. As the BBC reports, the Taliban "is said to be carrying out door-to-door searches while violent scenes have also been reported at some Taliban-controlled checkpoints."
The facts are clear - the time to help is now. For the world truly is our country.
