Imaginary Pokemon can be summoned using a new AI picture generator based on a prompt of your choice, however it appears to favour one bug-type over another.
Developer Justin Pinkney built the AI image generator called Lambdal(opens in new tab). The application uses a written command to produce an original image, much like Dall-E, who gained notoriety earlier this year with his bizarre (albeit fuzzy) photos. Pinkney used the technology and trained it on photographs with captions. Even though those descriptions weren’t great because a different AI also created them, they gave Pinkney and Lambdal a starting point of roughly 1,000 photographs to work with.
The photographs can now be used to create AI-generated Pokemon after being plugged into the system. The possibilities are pretty much unlimited, although Pinkney’s initial proposals include a leafy Yoda, many unsettling politician-themed’mons, and a group of cuddly Totoros.
That said, Lambdal does appear to favour a specific design. I’ve been playing around with it for a while, and I’ve noticed a pattern based on Vivillon, a butterfly Pokemon introduced in Pokemon X and Y that comes in a number of forms all with a noticeable pixel-art style. Echoes of that style have shown up a whole bunch of times, based on prompts ranging from my boss’ Twitter handle to Darth Vader. It’s a phenomenon reminiscent of Carcinisation, a term used to outline the way in which multiple species throughout evolutionary history have, independently of one another, ended up as crabs.
It’s not clear why that might have happened, but I’ve seen too many slightly round, pixel-y fakemons to believe that it’s just my eyes playing tricks on me. It might have something to do with the fact that Vivillon’s 20 different forms could disproportionately affect the AI tool, but it’s far from the only Pokemon to boast a suite of different appearances, so perhaps Lambdal just really likes butterflies.
Lambdal was released last week, and has already been used to generate more than 200,000 mons. You can give it a go right at the link at the top of the article (you’ll need a GitHub account to input your own prompts) – just don’t be upset if it steers clear of flying or fire-types.
With Pokemon Scarlet and Violet on the horizon, who knows what new concoctions could soon appear?