1. The web UIs I have used are taking advantage of the same mental pathways as an electronic slot machine. Just like you can max out your bet on a slot machine and mash a button until you run out of credits, you can do the same on the hosted stable diffusion apps until you get a shareable hit.
2. Just like the dream you had last night, nobody wants to hear about it at breakfast, no matter how epic it was, because it's not backed by any meaning.
That said, I love stable diffusion and am an addict to it almost every day.
TBH, I bought a 3090 and it broke after a week so I sent it back. It was about $1200, and I'm down about $80 on the web site at this point, so... I have been pondering a cloud solution though, but haven't done the math all the way yet. It's a bit like buying a $15K boat and then just going out on it once a month.
Slower means around a minute per picture. It's amazing! Guys with GPUs more expensive than my whole computer can't run it, but a laptop without fans can. Well done Apple.
I have a old ass GTX1070 and run it just fine, it's not the fastest but it works. A lot of these cases are just PEBCAK's and should just be removed from the internet, it's been made so easy that a literal child could install and use SD.
Well as long as they have a recent-ish NVidia card, rip AMD users.
The 3090 I had was actually somewhat slower than dreamstudio.ai, but the nice thing was the set of python tools I got with it was scriptable so I could do things like create an image, use that as input for another one, and so on, then make them into an animation. There's a bit of tax with initializing python and loading the ML model with each iteration, but if I ever get my hands on a 4090 I'm sure I can solve that.
I disagree with your point 2, to a greater or lesser extent. People have made some amazing images with the technology. From throwaway funny stuff which will probably contribute to 'meme' culture, to legitimately beautiful images that I would be happy to have on the wall.
I do agree that most of the dross I create is only of interest to me. OTOH I got some laughs with my "Liz Truss holding up signs with rude words on them" series from British friends yesterday.
"Just like the dream you had last night, nobody wants to hear about it at breakfast, no matter how epic it was, because it's not backed by any meaning."
Who stays awake at night wondering what meaning that cool picture of a dragon had?
They just enjoy it and move on with their day.
Same with AI-generated images... they just look cool, amazing, or hot.. whatever. Most people just enjoy them, without wondering what deep meaning they might have.
It's mostly art critics and the like who wonder what deep meaning Van Gogh's Starry Night or the Mona Lisa have (never mind abstract work like Jackson Pollock's). Everyone else just likes it or they don't.
1. The web UIs I have used are taking advantage of the same mental pathways as an electronic slot machine. Just like you can max out your bet on a slot machine and mash a button until you run out of credits, you can do the same on the hosted stable diffusion apps until you get a shareable hit.
2. Just like the dream you had last night, nobody wants to hear about it at breakfast, no matter how epic it was, because it's not backed by any meaning.
That said, I love stable diffusion and am an addict to it almost every day.