A problem that was solved mysteriously

One of my favorite sessions with old DALL-E 2 was “a daguerrotype of the problem that was solved mysteriously and miracuously”. This was a quote from our helpdesk manager, describing a common phenomenon of the IT world: that an issue suddenly disappears and we never find out what caused it.

DALL-E 2 hinted that an AI will attempt the impossible: paint abstract concepts. Deconstructionist artists like Joan Miró did something similar, though. But artists like Joan Miró are few and far between.

So, the second thing I did to DALL-E 3 when I got access to it was this:

Can you create me a daguerrotype-style illustration of a problem that was solved mysteriously?

Of course, DALL-E simply had to explain this verbosely:

Of course! A daguerreotype is one of the earliest forms of photography, known for its unique and vintage appearance. I’ll craft descriptions that evoke the atmosphere and essence of a mysterious problem-solving scenario in this style.

Then it redid the prompt four times, and gave me… three images. Unlike DALL-E 2, DALL-E 3 translated the abstract concept (a problem resolving itself mysteriously) into tangible, physical objects, but its choices were really interesting. My favorite is this (it’s the second one in the gallery below):

Photo: Inside a vintage library, a bookshelf moves aside to reveal a hidden passageway. A lantern illuminates the entrance, showing footsteps in the dust leading inwards. The walls of the passageway are lined with ancient scripts and symbols. The image possesses the warm, sepia-toned quality of an old daguerreotype.

Here are the three images I got, all of them much clearer and more detailed than an actual daguerrotype would be:

Then it gave me this note:

I’m glad I could generate some images for you. However, I’d like to inform you that one of the images couldn’t be generated due to our content policy. I apologize for the inconvenience.

This means that, from the “meta-prompt” I typed, it managed to generate another that violated its own content policy. Brilliant. But, like the problem that resolved mysteriously, I never found out what the actual violation was.