In today’s bulletin, Charlie discusses how AI can be used to create a photo and gives an insight into how these photos can be used as part of an exercise.
For the last month, I have been in Aruba, followed by a brief visit to Malaysia, so it is good to be back home and have my first home-cooked meal in five weeks. In Aruba, I ran a series of exercises, and in Malaysia I conducted a workshop. For both events, I used AI to generate pictures. For today’s bulletin, I will share some of these pictures and discuss the benefits and issues associated with using AI to generate images.
In exercises, a key word for me is ‘verisimilitude’, meaning the appearance of being true or real. The collated materials produced during the exercise to enhance the experience for participants doesn’t have to be 100% accurate, but it should give the impression of accuracy and add to the ambience of the exercise. For the first time, I used Midjourney to produce the pictures. I have tried Copilot, but the quality of its images is not as good as Midjourney’s.
For one of my exercises, the scenario involved torrential rain impacting various operations of my client, similar to the recent rain in Spain that caused 200 deaths and widespread devastation. I wanted to use some pictures to make the scenario more realistic and to help the crisis management team better understand the devastation caused by torrential rain.
In the two photos below, I aimed to show localised flooding. I asked Midjourney to make the houses look like Aruban-style houses because using European houses would hinder the scenario rather than enhance it.
In the picture below I wanted to show a road washed away along with the fuel supply line, water main and electrical feed to the south of the island. The picture looks Aruban and gives the impression of a damaged road but doesn’t totally show the utilities washed away.
One problem with AI is that it won’t take an original photo and change it. It will add its own interpretation to the phone. I asked for a terrorist attack in Kuala Lumpur for my workshop, and it came up with this one. Quite dramatic but it makes a point!
The above photo worked well. I wanted a Malaysian factory blown up.
I hope that the below fire engine is right, as sometimes these details detract. Actually, if you look really close, you can see it has two cabs!
I am going to share some more ideas with you as I go along and learn. If any of you out there have got any systems or ways of working on AI and using it for exercises, I would love to hear from you!
