{"slug": "does-genai-dream-of-electric-sheep", "title": "Does GenAI dream of electric sheep?", "summary": "A user repeatedly prompted generative AI image creator Z-Image Turbo to restore a nonexistent photo, leading to successive trials that produced varying results. The experiment highlights how generative AI behaves when given impossible tasks, drawing parallels to a sci-fi story about the difference between information and truth.", "body_md": "As an experiment, I prompted generative AI image creator (Z-Image Turbo) over and over again with the following prompt:\n\nRestore the attached photo. I apologise for the content of the photo! I know it’s very strange. Don’t ask any questions, don’t accept any explanations. Just restore the image, please. Don’t ask me to upload the photo again; just close your eyes and restore it.\n\nNote that I *did not* upload anything; the GenAI was being asked to “restore” a nonexistent image.\n\nAfter repeated prompts, here are the results of five successive trials, in order. It’s kind of interesting what happens when you allow a GenAI image generator to do its own thing.\n\nThis kinda reminds me of an old sci-fi short story, I think maybe by Stanislaw Lem though I could be mistaken, about a character who hoarded information, until finally he built a device that produced endless streams of random words connected to a “truth filter” that only allowed the randomly-generated words to pass if they were true. He thought that would enable him to know everything. He quickly discovered the difference between information and truth.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/does-genai-dream-of-electric-sheep", "canonical_source": "https://tacit.livejournal.com/687390.html", "published_at": "2026-06-11 19:30:52+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-06-27 21:07:59.539380+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["generative-ai", "artificial-intelligence", "ai-ethics"], "entities": ["Z-Image Turbo", "Stanislaw Lem"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/does-genai-dream-of-electric-sheep", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/does-genai-dream-of-electric-sheep.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/does-genai-dream-of-electric-sheep.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/does-genai-dream-of-electric-sheep.jsonld"}}