DALL-E mini / Craiyon

About

Craiyon, originally DALL-E mini, is an AI system that can create images from a description in natural language, which is a knock-off, less advanced but openly available version of DALL-E by OpenAI. The project went viral on Twitter in early June 2022 as it was used to generate humorous images, such as characters in unusual settings or characters eating various foods.

History

On April 21st, 2022, developer Boris Dayma, with contributors, released the first version of model DALL-E mini, a knock-off version of OpenAI's DALL-E AI model, on GitHub.^[7] On May 17th, 2022, Dayma uploaded the model to Hugging Face.^[1] Similar to the original project, the model is able to generate imagery based on a prompt in natural language (English). Unlike DALL-E 2, DALL-E mini is unable to produce images of comparative quality but is openly available.

The model did not become viral until June 4th, 2022, when Twitter^[2] user @AliceAvizandum made a Twitter thread about it. In the thread, @AliceAvizandum shared images created with the model. For example, AI-generated images of Queen Elizabeth II gained 30 retweets and 330 likes in three days (shown below, right).^[3]

In the following days, the AI achieved virality on Twitter as users created images with it, many of the posts going viral. For example, on June 5th, 2022, Twitter^[4] user @eLTehH posted a repaint of a crossover image generated by DALL-E mini, with the post gaining over 1,100 retweets and 4,800 likes (shown below, left). Later that day, Twitter^[5] user @Calavera145 shared images generated from the prompt "Coumbo for the Nintendo 64," with the post gaining over 5,200 retweets and 36,800 likes (shown below, center). On June 6th, musician and comedian Neil Cicierega made a post^[6] that received over 1,800 retweets and 21,000 likes (shown below, right).

Features

DALL-E mini is an AI model that generates nine images based on a provided prompt in natural language (English). The model is able to interpret words and combinations of words.

Highlights

Subreddit and Gimmick Accounts

On June 7ht, 2022, gimmick Twitter^[10] account Weird Dall-E Generations became active, sharing unusual images generated by DALL-E mini. The account accumulated over 172,000 followers in three days. On June 8th, 2022, the subreddit /r/weirddalle^[11] was created for the purposes of collecting unusual images generated by DALL-E mini, with the top-rated posts later shared by the Twitter account. The subreddit gained over 10,000 followers in two days.

Popular Trends

During the massive popularity of DALL-E mini in early June 2022, several notable tropes developed, such as descriptions containing specific styles, events and characters.

Warwick Davis Threads

On 4chan's /tv/ board, a trend of using DALL-E mini to put actor Warwick Davis into various scenarios gained significant popularity due to the actor being a meme on the board (examples shown below). For example, on June 5th, a user created a DALL-E mini thread^[8] that gained over 70 replies, many of them generated images of Warwick Davis. On June 7th, 2022, a user created a dedicated thread^[9] that received over 130 replies.

Courtroom Sketches

Trail Cam Footage

Characters With Food

Characters With Weapons

Characters Ballin'

Historic Events

Funko Pops

Similar Projects

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NeuralBlender

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Search Interest

External References