We asked AI to create images of Santa and the results were... disturbing

It’s the big one. It’s the Big Issue Santa cover. Every year we are presented with the same conundrum: how do we illustrate Santa this year? With AI being one of the year’s big topics, we wondered what the bots would make of our Santa cover. Last month, using Microsoft Bing, I briefed the bots with my image requirement: Santa selling The Big Issue.  

Initially, I had to applaud AI’s thought process with its range of media. Ideas began as photography then after a month-long pause (I’m assuming it went back to the AI drawing board) adapted to illustration. Yet the more times the bot was briefed, the odder Santa revealed himself.

But what really intrigued me as a graphic designer is what AI thinks Big Issue magazine looks like. We got massive broadsheets, tabloids, regular magazines, and stacks of magazines in storage boxes. Mostly, AI thinks The Big Issue is a newspaper. 

There was such a broad mix of design too. A typical red top tabloid was common with many covers having downtrodden faces on the cover – is this what AI thinks our content is because homelessness is typically perceived as wrong or negative? 

Overall, an AI image is not true art to me. I’m calling it Airt, which sounds like a new term for flatulence – “Who’s airted?”  That makes more sense to me. 

Here’s some highlights of AI’s take on our Big Issue Santa – which I will call a bad case of the airts…  

Get down with it – how AI helped with our Noddy Holder cover

There are positive aspects about AI in creativity. It allowed me to make a black-and-white picture of Noddy Holder full colour the other week, but this example is like a remix of a song – taking an original piece of art, and crafting something new. True cover art is akin to the writing of the song. There’s a creative process and a human craft behind it all. That is the difference between an AI image and the cover image you hold in your hands. 

Swing back to the front page and have a think about all the human decisions made to make this magazine for you, for your vendor. No bot can come close to that. 

Mark Neil is art director at The Big Issue.

This article is taken from The Big Issue magazine, which exists to give homeless, long-term unemployed and marginalised people the opportunity to earn an income. To support our work buy a copy!

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