Artist Uses DALL-E To Make Real Streets Much More User-Friendly
Is there a streetlamp that infuriatingly stands in the middle of your sidewalk? Artificial intelligence can fix that in seconds.
A fascinating new project by the Twitter account @betterstreetsAI uses the popular DALL-E 2 art-generating AI as a landscape-planning tool, envisioning public spaces to finally be returned to the public.
In these urban utopias, pedestrians—rather than cars—get the right of way. Vehicle-clogged roads are downsized to make way for footpaths, or wiped out completely to accommodate beautiful, AI-generated gardens, plazas, and bicycle paths. All it takes is a simple line of text to conceive blueprints of these user-friendly areas.
The ongoing series was created by Brooklyn-based artist and safe-street activist Zach Katz, who has previously joined efforts to promote safe public spaces in Portland, Oregon, reports Curbed.
Sunset Boulevard (Los Angeles, CA) pic.twitter.com/pCFlnXQfGB
— AI-generated street transformations (@betterstreetsai) July 24, 2022
Images by betterstreets.ai and featured with permission
E Brady St (Milwaukee, WI) pic.twitter.com/6HuLYOjnLl
— AI-generated street transformations (@betterstreetsai) July 25, 2022
Images by betterstreets.ai and featured with permission
Tompkins Ave in Brooklyn, for instance, is depicted as a people-first zone with a foliage-adorned fountain at its heart. And the BQE’s claustrophobia-inducing lanes is now a car-free grassland resembling a golf course.
The BQE (Brooklyn, NY) pic.twitter.com/o1laD77cKn
— AI-generated street transformations (@betterstreetsai) July 25, 2022
Images by betterstreets.ai and featured with permission
@betterstreetsAI dreams up a world that is connected by bicycle networks. The Sixth Street Viaduct in Los Angeles, for example, has been portrayed by AI as a massive bicycle path.
6th Street Viaduct (Los Angeles, CA) pic.twitter.com/7JwwlpcjPy
— AI-generated street transformations (@betterstreetsai) July 25, 2022
Images by betterstreets.ai and featured with permission
Katz intends to grow the project, and he’s also accepting requests to digitally revamp neighborhoods. As of July 20, however, DALL-E 2 has been retooled as a subscription-based program, so donations are now welcome.
You can watch more streetscapes unfold over at the project’s website and Twitter account.
Canal St (Manhattan, NYC) pic.twitter.com/JvQjblGffY
— AI-generated street transformations (@betterstreetsai) July 25, 2022
Images by betterstreets.ai and featured with permission
Thompson Street (Greenwich Village, NYC) pic.twitter.com/VJy102dA7u
— AI-generated street transformations (@betterstreetsai) July 25, 2022
Images by betterstreets.ai and featured with permission
Tompkins Ave (Brooklyn, NY) pic.twitter.com/Ya41WDHWjh
— AI-generated street transformations (@betterstreetsai) July 25, 2022
Images by betterstreets.ai and featured with permission
Harvard Ave (Allston, MA) pic.twitter.com/YSs378taQp
— AI-generated street transformations (@betterstreetsai) July 25, 2022
Images by betterstreets.ai and featured with permission
S Broadway (Los Angeles, CA) https://t.co/lWeu4jH2qG pic.twitter.com/1VOI5d4e3g
— AI-generated street transformations (@betterstreetsai) July 21, 2022
Images by betterstreets.ai and featured with permission
W 5th Ave (Anchorage, Alaska) pic.twitter.com/JszhAAKWgS
— AI-generated street transformations (@betterstreetsai) July 25, 2022
Images by betterstreets.ai and featured with permission
Waverly Place (Greenwich Village, NYC) pic.twitter.com/FsLCiBSh3Y
— AI-generated street transformations (@betterstreetsai) July 25, 2022
Images by betterstreets.ai and featured with permission
S Catalina Ave (Redondo Beach, CA) pic.twitter.com/WmcnmRMKOi
— AI-generated street transformations (@betterstreetsai) July 25, 2022
Images by betterstreets.ai and featured with permission
E Burnside St (Portland, OR) pic.twitter.com/m7gjtJws5h
— AI-generated street transformations (@betterstreetsai) July 25, 2022
Images by betterstreets.ai and featured with permission
[via Curbed, images by betterstreets.ai and featured with permission]
