Skip to main content

Creative AI makes epic dinosaur art by cleverly arranging pictures of flowers

Neural networks can do some awesome things, from allowing cars to drive on their own to instantly translating dozens of languages. But when it comes to our personal favorite use cases, we’re going with one recently engineered by Australian artist Chris Rodley.

By combining a deep-learning algorithm, a book of dinosaur pictures, and a book of flower paintings, he’s created some of the trippiest images this side of an M.C. Escher or Salvador Dali.

Recommended Videos

“The tech that makes this work isn’t mine, but was created by a team of researchers from Germany who published a paper on it two years ago,” Rodley told Digital Trends. “The idea of the group, led by Leon Gatys, was to transfer an art style as represented in a sample print to a target photograph. They called it ‘style transfer,’ and it was a huge success. Many people have been using it to see how they’d look painted in the style of [Georges] Seurat or [Pablo] Picasso or whatever. But the most interesting work I came across wasn’t just applying form; it was actually taking content from one image, and using it to reconstruct the original target image.”

Chris Rodley
Chris Rodley
Please enable Javascript to view this content

As well as flowers, Rodley also attempted combining dinosaur images with still-life paintings of fruits and vegetables, along with several other objects, with the results being truly mesmerizing.

“It turns out, through trial and error, that dinosaurs are perfect targets for this algorithm, because their shapes are instantly evocative,” Rodley continued. “[Whereas something like] the Mona Lisa is not so great, since its composition isn’t especially distinctive; rather it’s in the detail.”

It’s a stunning example of some of the creative possibilities available to artists when they utilize artificial intelligence as a tool that essentially transforms into brushes that can think for themselves. “AI is developing so fast now that there seem to be more creative tools than there are creative people to use them,” he said.

Since uploading the pictures to his website, Rodley said he has been overwhelmed by requests from people, many of whom want to know where they can get copies of the images themselves. “I added a contact form to my site since so many people were asking for prints,” he said. “I’ll try and make that happen.”

Luke Dormehl
Former Digital Trends Contributor
I'm a UK-based tech writer covering Cool Tech at Digital Trends. I've also written for Fast Company, Wired, the Guardian…
Global EV sales expected to rise 30% in 2025, S&P Global says
ev sales up 30 percent 2025 byd sealion 7 1stbanner l

While trade wars, tariffs, and wavering subsidies are very much in the cards for the auto industry in 2025, global sales of electric vehicles (EVs) are still expected to rise substantially next year, according to S&P Global Mobility.

"2025 is shaping up to be ultra-challenging for the auto industry, as key regional demand factors limit demand potential and the new U.S. administration adds fresh uncertainty from day one," says Colin Couchman, executive director of global light vehicle forecasting for S&P Global Mobility.

Read more
Faraday Future could unveil lowest-priced EV yet at CES 2025
Faraday Future FF 91

Given existing tariffs and what’s in store from the Trump administration, you’d be forgiven for thinking the global race toward lower electric vehicle (EV) prices will not reach U.S. shores in 2025.

After all, Chinese manufacturers, who sell the least expensive EVs globally, have shelved plans to enter the U.S. market after 100% tariffs were imposed on China-made EVs in September.

Read more
What to expect at CES 2025: drone-launching vans, mondo TVs, AI everywhere
CES 2018 Show Floor

With 2024 behind us, all eyes in tech turn to Las Vegas, where tech monoliths and scrappy startups alike are suiting up to give us a glimpse of the future. What tech trends will set the world afire in 2025? While we won’t know all the details until we hit the carpets of the Las Vegas Convention Center, our team of reporters and editors have had an ear to the ground for months. And we have a pretty good idea what’s headed your way.

Here’s a sneak peek at all the gizmos, vehicles, technologies, and spectacles we expect to light up Las Vegas next week.
Computing

Read more