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  • Writer's picture Richard Littler

AI Can't Create This...

Recently, I set out to create new digital artwork that can't be replicated/imitated by AI. It seems to me that AI's Achilles heel is its failure to deliver true details, or rather that its seemingly complex imagery is actually specious - the illusion of detail; it often doesn't stand up to scrutiny.


With this in mind, I came up with this artwork called A Drawing of the Shelf Unit Beside My Desk on February 27th 2024 at 2:35pm. Part still life, part Pop Art, part exhaustive archive, it was ludicrously time consuming (and possibly the most autistic thing I have ever done).




In it, I've recreated every piece of verifiable, visual information: CD covers, publisher logos, album titles on record spines, typefaces, multi-language instructions on packaging. The comics are in individual plastic sleeves with their backing cards, and I've even included the product batch code on a small pot of lip balm.





As far as I am aware, AI can't reproduce this level of factual detail. My drawing can't even be printed: If the smallest imagery and texts are to be legible, the print would need to be a few 100 metres tall. Imagine the cost of ink cartridges.


Just how small is some of the imagery/texts? Well, there is, for example, an image of my reflection in the lens of the camera (and, yes, I am considering filling in the details of the book shelf's contents behind me).




...And on the spine of H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds, on the middle shelf, I have embedded the entire text of the novel.




Here's a quick, illustrative (silent) video. Apologies when it pixellates during one section - my graphics card was struggling!



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2 Comments


Christopher Hough
Christopher Hough
Mar 01

lovely work!


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wendy.a.thompson
Mar 01

Awesome! 😯

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