Mumbai re-imagined through the lens of AI

Who in Mumbai doesnrsquot know the value of a BEST bus or a local train Even with all its follies of toll nakas flyovers and arterial roads they help us manoeuvre through the metropolis to Chowpatty or sit at Marine Drive with a cutting in handNo surprise that they receive a hattip in Manoj Omrersquos AI renditionsA couple of his series on the same which were shared by Omre on his handle manojomre were well loved This included images that show an enclosed red waterfloat with BEST written on it in the Devnagri scriptManoj Omre uses AI to create some stunning visuals with iconic structures such as the Gateway Of India or Sea Link He also looks at services we take for granted like the BEST with notsojaded eyes and gives them a fantastical feel PicsManoj OmreOmre a multimedia artist enjoys working with AI as an artistic medium He moved from the capital to this mayanagri in 2017 when he was just 23 years old He looks at the city through notsojaded eyes at things we take for grantedldquoI just love what transport means to the cityrdquo says Omre ldquoItrsquos just fun to dabble in AI about things that you see around yourdquo Other than the BEST bus one of our favourites is the openroof bus floating in the city sky tethered to helium balloonsContrary to the almost universal fear of AI taking away human contribution especially in creative fields Omre feels that while it may seem from the outside that the technology is growing rapidly it isnrsquot the case ldquoI feel AI has not progressed much from where it was around the same time last yearrdquo says the Andheri resident ldquoPeople may think that AI can do a project end to end but that isnrsquot so For a 30second short about Mumbai transport we had to make the frames for scratch the minutiae of the streets and the faces of peoplemdashwhich AI helped with But the final touches are by the artist onlyrdquo he saysManoj OmreInstead of negative attention for using AI the questions he gets on Instagram are about the creation process ldquoAI prompts are not a Google searchrdquo he says ldquoIt takes time to learn workflow and creativity only the correct combination of these two factors results in interesting work Some of my friends felt that it was as simple as typing out a command on an AI generating platform but found that they were unable to generate anything despite several triesrdquoOmre also doesnrsquot find the AI space to be as unethical as it is perceived and lambastedmdashmany digital companies do not use the technology as much as a lay person would assume ldquoMany are particular about ethical concerns since they use art or work of artists from around the world and itrsquos plagiarism adaptation not a practice they want to encouragerdquo he saysWherever AI is headed VR screens or VR videos on phone screens we hope the city and we are around to experience itWhat is the tech Software that uses AI to create artistic imagesHow it works Software such as Midjourney allow you to experiment by entering work flow commands that create realistic images with a touch of fantasyWhom it help Will sophisticate Indiarsquos VFXrsquos industry for cinema Over The Top OTT platforms and virtual reality