The AI-Assisted Evolution of an Image

Dr. Burglar Toad looks like a friendly sort, doesn't she? Over there on the right, watching you peacefully from the "About Me" panel. As soon as I saw her, I knew I needed to bring her to life in some way other than just my own private stories. Her face shows years of sorrow and gentle joys, as well as that alien "otherness" that I've felt my entire life. She looked like the woman I hope to become when I'm 108 years old. If it wasn't for her picture, I don't think words alone would have kept me engaged in this project.

But what oceanic depths dredged forth this squamous, antiquated grande dame?

I discovered Artbreeder at the same time as AI Dungeon, since the avatars available in the latter were all created by the BigGAN AI in the former. It's pretty simple to use: you select an image, then move sliders to change it in specific ways, such as to make a person look older, or to make a landscape turn from day to night, or to make a monkey look more like a church. The user base tends to make "pretty" people, but I was focused on creating the perfect Innsmouth look. I started with a randomly selected "pretty person" picture:

But, obviously, she was too pretty. Sort of "artsy" looking, with features too bland and even. So I moved numerous sliders around randomly, and made her older, more substantial, more beautifully imperfect. There were many, many failures, some of which looked like literal "poop" emojis. Somehow, I'm not entirely sure how, I managed to make her blue. I was aiming for sea green, but at least she had some purple and green highlights.

She looked a little too old for the first story, though, so I decided to buck my instincts and go even older, as if the story was being told by a woman remembering her long lost youth. I moved the age slider, and added a little more chaos, and eventually ended up with Dr. Burglar Toad's perfectly scaly skin, ears metamorphosing into something more aquatic, a hint of hidden gills, and glorious luminescent barnacles. Her eyes were even a touch golden, like in the story. She was perfect.

For the sake of visualizing her in the past, I went back to the middle-aged picture and changed it so that I could see what she looked like when she was still in her 30s. There's still a hint of green about her, but she looks almost entirely human. I decided on red hair to match her Irish heritage, and moved the "happy" and "angry" sliders until I got her to have a cheeky little smirk and a fire in her eyes. She looks like someone you could be friends with, even if she was a burglar and a nascent toad-being. 

Then, I went back and created images for her husband, her children, her pets, her extended family, her vacation spots... All sorts of things which may be revealed in the fullness of time, when the stars are right. ;)