CHENNAI: Elon Musk, Donald Trump, Bill Gates, Mukesh Ambani, Mark Zuckerberg, Warren Buffett and Jeff Bezos... Can you imagine them vulnerable or underprivileged? Well... artist Gokul Pillai, with a little help from Artificial Intelligence (AI), did and the pictures recently went viral.
The images show the billionaires dressed in rags and standing in slums. “I made the images using Midjourney, an Artificial Intelligence programme, which was completed in just two days and posted on my social media account.
The reactions I got was quite overwhelming and the images went viral. I initially created the scenes of the slum and then made the characters,” says the Infosys employee who shuttles between Mysuru and Bengaluru.
The images got huge traction within minutes after Pillai posted it on Instagram. However, his initial plan was to create AI-generated images of politicians with slum scenes in the background. The 32-year-old Kerala native likes to choose themes set in dystopian worlds.
One of his other works is AI-generated images of politicians in a parallel world doing different jobs. For instance, Narendra Modi has been re-imagined as a tea seller, while Arvind Kejriwal can be seen holding a broom stick.
Pillai feels that the fusion of AI with traditional artforms is a revolutionary idea. “I believe AI should be used in an ethical manner as it is easily accessible where people can express themselves. The ideation and storyline is the challenging part,” says Pillai, who plans to do a second part of the series.