Truly Artificial

| tech | ai |

I’ve always been a bit turned off by the required thumbnail image that you normally see attached to a blog post. This is common in most blog themes, and is especially common in corporate blogs. My objection at the time was that the image was usually some generic nonsense that had nothing to do with the content of the post.

I feel that we may have over-corrected with the magic of AI.

Now you get very specific thumbnail images that feel like they were commissioned by an artist to attempt to tell the story of the post in a single image. I know because when I was working on the tralev project to visit every state capital, I would commission illustrations to supplement posts by guest writers.

But the AI generated images feel different. Every time I see one it feels like its way too specific. A little bit too on the nose. Instantly and truly artificial.

Thank you for reading! Share your thoughts with me on bluesky, mastodon, or via email.

Check out some more stuff to read down below.

Most popular posts this month

Recent Favorite Blog Posts

This is a collection of the last 8 posts that I bookmarked.

Articles from blogs I follow around the net

Pluralistic: Carl Hiaasen's 'Fever Beach' (21 Oct 2025)

Today's links Carl Hiaasen's 'Fever Beach': If you didn't laugh, you'd have to cry. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: Scary Godmother; Nightvale novel; The war on Worker's Comp; Cadillac's murdermo…

via Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow October 21, 2025

10 pointless facts about me

Found on Kev’s blog and originally started by Dave, here are my answers to this fun blog challenge: Do you floss your teeth? Sometimes. I’d say maybe a few times a week? I’m terrible at being consistent, and that includes flossing regularly. Tea, co…

via Manuel Moreale — Everything Feed October 21, 2025

Getting started with simple CSS View Transitions

There's (yet another) new piece of CSS to learn! Hurrah! Way back in 2011, jQuery mobile introduced the web to page-change animations. Clicking on a link would make your high-tech Nokia display a cool page-flip as you navigated from one page of a web…

via Terence Eden’s Blog October 21, 2025

Generated by openring