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» “Draw Asuka!” — A.I.-created doodles are adorable, but aren’t quite there yet…

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“Draw Asuka!” — A.I.-created doodles are adorable, but aren’t quite there yet…

Preston Phro Mar 8, 2016
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Illustrators don’t need to worry about robots stealing their jobs — yet.

The artificial intelligence apocalypse looks like it’s a long way off, if this adorable illustration is any indication!

The tweet below was sent by a Japanese illustrator who goes by the Twitter handle @enpitsu, showing off the illustration abilities of artificial intelligence. In case you’re having a hard time figuring out just what you’re looking it, that’s what the AI produced when told to draw Asuka from Evangelion.

▼ “I recently made some AI that draws a picture when you give it a character name for a bit of fun, and this is the result it produced for Asuka.”

最近趣味でキャラクター名を与えたら絵を描いてくれる人工知能を作ってるんですが、アスカを描いてもらった結果がこれです pic.twitter.com/Wag6KPZCgB

— enpitsu (@enpitsu) March 5, 2016

Now, to be fair, that’s actually pretty good for someone just throwing around some code as a hobby! Even Google is still working on their image recognition software, so this is nothing to scoff at. On the other hand, we suspect it should make illustrators the world over feel a bit better about their job security.

The Japanese technology website NetLab also provided a bit more detail about how the AI works. @enpitsu apparently used Deep Learning and OpenCV (artificial intelligence and computer vision libraries) to find images of Asuka and then passed that information to Processing, a “flexible software sketchbook.” Basically, after being given a name, the software looks online for reference images and then attempts to draw the character.

However, most of the results are apparently still not very good — according to @enpitsu, the image of Asuka was the best produced so far.

Of course, @enpitsu’s own illustrations are considerably better — and here are a few for your enjoyment!

LORD of VERMILION IIIで描いたアレイスターのサンプルカードを頂きました pic.twitter.com/oVtuLX4fbm

— enpitsu (@enpitsu) April 26, 2014

背景をD3.js使って描くという試み（30秒ごとにくるくる変わります） https://t.co/XLBG1tfN3b pic.twitter.com/7rPjcPLMFx

— enpitsu (@enpitsu) November 14, 2015

Happy Halloween! pic.twitter.com/msW54tF0fl

— enpitsu (@enpitsu) October 31, 2013

We certainly look forward to seeing what else @enpitsu and the AI produce — hopefully the illustrator doesn’t create the technology that puts himself in the unemployment line!

And if you’re interested in the more human side of “robots,” you’ll be happy to know WORLD ORDER has a new video! Follow their lead, and you’ll be able to blend in when the robots decide to do more than just draw us…

Sources: Twitter/@enpitsu, NetLab
Featured image: Twitter/@enpitsu