213 DIFFICULT TO MAP OUT...

I mentioned the idea of getting a 'tour' t-shirt for us all to wear during the rally in an earlier post. Rachel read it and thought it was a great shout, as did Carl, because I think it was his idea in the first place! I'm not a designer, but I don't need to be now that A.I. is with us and doing all the donkey work for us, so I fired up Claude and entered the following prompt:

"Please create a design that can be printed on the back of a t-shirt detailing a road trip we are doing, visiting the following destinations: Liverpool, Namur, Belgium, Freiburg, Germany, Menaggio, Italy, Monaco, Nice, France, Sete, France, San Sebastian, Spain, Bilbao, Spain, Portsmouth and back to Liverpool."

The results were spectacular...but not in a good way. The first effort was an abstract blob with a list of dates underneath. Not exactly what I was looking for. After I refined the prompt to say, "Instead of a stylised map, could you include a real map in the design?", it added an interactive map that could be clicked for more information. Sake.

I replied to the A.I., saying, "An interactive map is not good for a t-shirt! Please replace it with a regular map". It agreed with me, replying, "Fair point!" Let me draw a proper static map in SVG - geographically accurate coastlines and borders, with the route plotted over the top."  

Behold the magnificence of A.I.'s geographically accurate map (above, first image). Honestly, what the hell is that? It looks like a boob, according to Rachel's colleague - shes not wrong.  

I fired up Leonardo, which is designed to create graphics, so I was confident it would do a better job on the assignment, but my confidence was misplaced. The first effort was a stylised beach scene (above, middle image) with mad writing on it and, for some reason, the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and possibly the Space Needle from Seattle.

After further refinement of the prompt, a map appeared...of Europe-ish (above, last image)! Result. Sadly, the points on the map bore no resemblance to their location on the planet. After this, I gave up. Hopefully, someone else will have more luck knocking something up.

Right now, I don't think there is much to worry about when it comes to A.I. taking over and making us its slaves; it can't even make a map of Europe with 10 places marked in the right place. Skynet has lost this round...