AI Image Creation: An Experiment

I am writing a book about my coaching practice. To lighten things up and convey the ideas visually, I decided to see if I could use artificial intelligence to generate the illustrations. But where to begin?

- Hal Goldstein

I started playing with Apple Intelligence on my iPhone 15 Pro. Later, I tried apps that don't require Apple Intelligence.

I began by downloading the Apple Intelligence-based Image Playground app (free), which you can also use in Messages. The user-friendly, well-structured app makes image creation fast and easy. The app invites you to combine up to six ingredients including a description of an image, an existing or new photo, and auto-generated suggestions like “summer,” “farmer,” and “scarf.”

“Playground” is an apt name, as it gives novices a chance to play and create. However, it severely limits potential output with only two art styles to choose from and a narrow field of content options, so it's not for serious work. I did manage to create an animation of me with cartoonish thought bubbles to introduce a chapter on thinking, but I won't use it for the book.

Next, I tried web-based