AI can't tell time

 kw: ai experiments, prompts, ai art, failures

In various corners of the universe of knowledge, SI (Simulated Intelligence) is manifestly ignorant. This can be seen in certain everyday tasks, such as reading (or drawing) an analog clock. I heard mention that most advertising for clocks and watches shows the hands set to 10:10 because ad writers think that has the most attractive appearance. Since SI has no knowledge of what clocks even are, or how the hands show time, they are dependent on their training image sets, which are only useful if there is text accompanying the images. I decided to see how various art generators would handle this prompt:

An image of a very decorated mantel clock showing the time as 4:15

I first used Gemini. This is the result, showing my prompt (one has to tell Gemini this is to be an image or picture):

The program did a good job with the decoration. That is its strength. But, sure enough, the clock's hands are pointed at 10:10, or very nearly so. If you look closely, the hour hand is exactly at the 10, where it should be 1/6th of the way to the 11. 

Gemini produces only one image at a time, in contrast to all the other programs at my disposal.

I next tried DreamStudio, the most recent program I use. I set the number of images to make at 2, because I pay for credits, and each image costs something. Using the same prompt:

DreamStudio is playing a trick in the first image. The hands have a "head" at both ends, so the time being indicated is ambiguous, but one interpretation is still 10:10. Though the hands have different shapes, it's also hard to tell hour from minute hand, so eight interpretations are possible! Don't try to teach your kid to read a clock that has such pathological hands!

The second image at least has a hand pointed at the 4, but given that the other is pointed at the 8, indicating 4:40, the hour hand should be a bit more than halfway between the 4 and the 5.

Next victim: ImageFX (driving Imagen 3, the same as Gemini). It is free to use, so I let it run four images. I also left the aspect ratio at 16:9, the setting I usually use with this program.

All hands point to 10:10. the expected result. Next, Leonardo, using the "bare bones" Leonardo Lightning style and the default (Dynamic) substyle:

Here we find an interesting variety of responses. 

• Upper left: The hands are so nearly the same length it's hard to say if this is 10:10 or 2:50, although whichever hand is the hour hand, it's pointed right at the digit, not advanced as it should be.
• Upper right: This looks the most like a real clock. The hour hand is between the 4 and the 5. It still isn't showing 4:15.
• Lower left: The hour hand is near the 6, but on the wrong side of it, unless it is just a little too far over and the time should be read as 5:40.
• Lower right: 4:40, with a misplaced hour hand, as seen before.

Finally, here is the response from Dall-E3 in Bing:

Assuming I've figured out correctly which hand is which in each case, the times shown are 10:07, 2:50, 10:09 and 12:55.

So there you have it. Not one 4:15 in the bunch.