{"id":17,"date":"2026-02-15T13:53:49","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T12:53:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mantramonty.com\/?page_id=17"},"modified":"2026-05-17T01:13:57","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T00:13:57","slug":"about","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.mantramonty.com\/en\/about\/","title":{"rendered":"About this site"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Don\u2019t let it bring you down<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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It start\u00aded, as these things often do, with a rea\u00adson\u00adable amount of pri\u00ador expe\u00adri\u00adence and a com\u00adplete\u00adly unrea\u00adson\u00adable amount of opti\u00admism. Years of Pho\u00adto\u00adshop. A job at a web agency where AI had recent\u00adly gone from back\u00adground noise to the only top\u00adic any\u00adone want\u00aded to dis\u00adcuss. A gen\u00ader\u00adal inter\u00adest in mak\u00ading things look good. On paper, AI image gen\u00ader\u00ada\u00adtion was an obvi\u00adous next step. In prac\u00adtice, it was more like a next step into a room where the floor plan keeps chang\u00ading.<\/p>\n

First came the plat\u00adform prob\u00adlem. There are, it turns out, quite a few of them, each with its own mod\u00adels, its own pric\u00ading, its own par\u00adtic\u00adu\u00adlar way of not quite doing what you had in mind. Night\u00adCaf\u00e9 became the main habi\u00adtat \u2014 part\u00adly for the mod\u00adels, part\u00adly for the com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adty, and part\u00adly because the first image of the day is free, which sounds mod\u00adest until you realise it has qui\u00adet\u00adly restruc\u00adtured your morn\u00ading rou\u00adtine. There are also cred\u00adits to be won if you show up every day. You tell your\u00adself you won\u2019t become that per\u00adson. Read\u00ader, you become that per\u00adson.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Cur\u00adrent sta\u00adtus: Can\u00adcelled my Pro Tier \u2013 tried to live on cred\u00adits alone. With\u00adout Pro Sta\u00adtus they won\u2019t even let me search my own cre\u00adations. It\u2019s just a giant heap of limbs and tex\u00adtures now.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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The cre\u00adat\u00ading itself is its own par\u00adtic\u00adu\u00adlar expe\u00adri\u00adence. There is the image that looks gen\u00aduine\u00adly good at thumb\u00adnail size and reveals, on clos\u00ader inspec\u00adtion, that the hands have six fin\u00adgers and the back\u00adground archi\u00adtec\u00adture belongs to no known peri\u00adod or coun\u00adtry. There is the prompt you refine sev\u00aden\u00adteen times, with mount\u00ading speci\u00adfici\u00adty, and which pro\u00adduces the same image all sev\u00aden\u00adteen times, as if the mod\u00adel read the first three words and stopped lis\u00adten\u00ading. There is the self-doubt that arrives reli\u00adably around attempt nine, when noth\u00ading is work\u00ading and every\u00adone else in the com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adty gallery appears to be pro\u00adduc\u00ading lumi\u00adnous, tech\u00adni\u00adcal\u00adly flaw\u00adless work with\u00adout vis\u00adi\u00adble effort.<\/p>\n

About that gallery. The com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adty show\u00adcas\u00ades are full of images that are, in all hon\u00adesty, extra\u00ador\u00addi\u00adnary \u2014 and also, in approx\u00adi\u00admate\u00adly equal mea\u00adsure, the most aggres\u00adsive\u00adly clich\u00e9d things you have ever seen. Iri\u00addes\u00adcent drag\u00adons. Weep\u00ading elves in cin\u00ade\u00admat\u00adic light\u00ading. Cot\u00adtages of such aggres\u00adsive cozi\u00adness they con\u00adsti\u00adtute a pub\u00adlic health con\u00adcern. AI, it emerges, is very good at giv\u00ading peo\u00adple exact\u00adly what they already want\u00aded, ren\u00addered at a res\u00ado\u00adlu\u00adtion that makes it some\u00adhow worse. This is not a crit\u00adi\u00adcism. It is an obser\u00adva\u00adtion. The uni\u00adcorn-doo\u00adfus con\u00adtent has its audi\u00adence and its place. It is sim\u00adply not the place this web\u00adsite is try\u00ading to occu\u00adpy.<\/p>\n

What to do with all this stuff?<\/span><\/h3>\n

The web\u00adsite itself exists because images accu\u00admu\u00adlate faster than any\u00adone can sen\u00adsi\u00adbly store them, and the alter\u00adna\u00adtive dis\u00adtri\u00adb\u00adu\u00adtion chan\u00adnels have their lim\u00adits. T\u2011shirt designs on Red\u00adbub\u00adble and Teep\u00adub\u00adlic are fine as far as they go, which is appar\u00adent\u00adly not very far when you are one among sev\u00ader\u00adal mil\u00adlion design\u00aders and the search algo\u00adrithm has the atten\u00adtion span of a gold\u00adfish with options. A web\u00adsite felt like a way of at least hav\u00ading a place. Whether any\u00adone would find it, or want to, giv\u00aden that AI image con\u00adtent is avail\u00adable in quan\u00adti\u00adties that would have been con\u00adsid\u00adered phys\u00adi\u00adcal\u00adly impos\u00adsi\u00adble five years ago \u2014 this is a ques\u00adtion the web\u00adsite declines to answer direct\u00adly and hopes you will find charm\u00ading rather than eva\u00adsive.<\/p>\n

The work\u00ading assump\u00adtion is that the ideas behind the images are still doing some\u00adthing of their own \u2014 that prompt\u00ading an AI toward some\u00adthing gen\u00aduine\u00adly odd, or spe\u00adcif\u00adic, or out\u00adside the stan\u00addard library of beau\u00adti\u00adful sad\u00adness and fan\u00adta\u00adsy grandeur, pro\u00adduces results that at least have the right inten\u00adtions. Whether the machine catch\u00ades up with those inten\u00adtions is the dai\u00adly nego\u00adti\u00ada\u00adtion. Some\u00adtimes it does. Some\u00adtimes it pro\u00adduces some\u00adthing so com\u00adpre\u00adhen\u00adsive\u00adly wrong it becomes inter\u00adest\u00ading for entire\u00adly dif\u00adfer\u00adent rea\u00adsons.<\/p>\n

GPT mud\u00addied things con\u00adsid\u00ader\u00adably by turn\u00ading out to be good at the whole pack\u00adage \u2014 image, text, the occa\u00adsion\u00adal joke that lands \u2014 which rais\u00ades ques\u00adtions about the long-term career prospects of the per\u00adson writ\u00ading this. These ques\u00adtions are being set aside for now, on the grounds that they are not imme\u00addi\u00adate\u00adly action\u00adable and the dai\u00adly cred\u00adit is burn\u00ading.<\/p>\n

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So: this is a web\u00adsite about mak\u00ading AI images, most\u00adly on Night\u00adCaf\u00e9, with vary\u00ading degrees of suc\u00adcess and a con\u00adsis\u00adtent fail\u00adure to stop try\u00ading. That\u2019s prob\u00ada\u00adbly enough of a rea\u00adson. It\u2019s def\u00adi\u00adnite\u00adly enough of a habit.<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Don\u2019t let it bring you down It start\u00aded, as these things often do, with a rea\u00adson\u00adable amount of pri\u00ador expe\u00adri\u00adence and a com\u00adplete\u00adly unrea\u00adson\u00adable amount of opti\u00admism. Years of Pho\u00adto\u00adshop. A job at a web agency where AI had recent\u00adly gone from back\u00adground noise to the only top\u00adic any\u00adone want\u00aded [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7737,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"inspiro_page_layout":"narrow","inspiro_hide_title":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-17","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.mantramonty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ON-THE-WAY-HOME-v2-1600x900-1-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.mantramonty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ON-THE-WAY-HOME-v2-1600x900-1-300x169.jpg",300,169,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.mantramonty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ON-THE-WAY-HOME-v2-1600x900-1-768x432.jpg",768,432,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.mantramonty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ON-THE-WAY-HOME-v2-1600x900-1-1024x576.jpg",930,523,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.mantramonty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ON-THE-WAY-HOME-v2-1600x900-1-1536x864.jpg",1536,864,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.mantramonty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ON-THE-WAY-HOME-v2-1600x900-1.jpg",1600,900,false],"trp-custom-language-flag":["https:\/\/www.mantramonty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ON-THE-WAY-HOME-v2-1600x900-1-18x10.jpg",18,10,true],"featured":["https:\/\/www.mantramonty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ON-THE-WAY-HOME-v2-1600x900-1.jpg",1600,900,false],"featured@2x":["https:\/\/www.mantramonty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ON-THE-WAY-HOME-v2-1600x900-1.jpg",1600,900,false],"featured-small":["https:\/\/www.mantramonty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ON-THE-WAY-HOME-v2-1600x900-1-1000x563.jpg",1000,563,true],"recent-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.mantramonty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ON-THE-WAY-HOME-v2-1600x900-1-345x192.jpg",345,192,true],"recent-thumbnail-retina":["https:\/\/www.mantramonty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ON-THE-WAY-HOME-v2-1600x900-1-690x384.jpg",690,384,true],"woo-featured":["https:\/\/www.mantramonty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ON-THE-WAY-HOME-v2-1600x900-1-280x280.jpg",280,280,true],"entry-cover":["https:\/\/www.mantramonty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ON-THE-WAY-HOME-v2-1600x900-1.jpg",1600,900,false],"entry-cover@2x":["https:\/\/www.mantramonty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ON-THE-WAY-HOME-v2-1600x900-1.jpg",1600,900,false],"loop":["https:\/\/www.mantramonty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ON-THE-WAY-HOME-v2-1600x900-1-300x300.jpg",300,300,true],"loop@2x":["https:\/\/www.mantramonty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ON-THE-WAY-HOME-v2-1600x900-1-600x600.jpg",600,600,true],"portfolio-scroller-widget":["https:\/\/www.mantramonty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ON-THE-WAY-HOME-v2-1600x900-1-996x560.jpg",996,560,true],"portfolio_item-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.mantramonty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ON-THE-WAY-HOME-v2-1600x900-1-600x400.jpg",600,400,true],"portfolio_item-thumbnail@2x":["https:\/\/www.mantramonty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ON-THE-WAY-HOME-v2-1600x900-1-1200x800.jpg",1200,800,true],"portfolio_item-masonry":["https:\/\/www.mantramonty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ON-THE-WAY-HOME-v2-1600x900-1-600x338.jpg",600,338,true],"portfolio_item-thumbnail_wide":["https:\/\/www.mantramonty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ON-THE-WAY-HOME-v2-1600x900-1-1600x600.jpg",1600,600,true],"portfolio_item-thumbnail_wide_cinema":["https:\/\/www.mantramonty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ON-THE-WAY-HOME-v2-1600x900-1-1600x750.jpg",1600,750,true],"portfolio_item-thumbnail_cinema":["https:\/\/www.mantramonty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ON-THE-WAY-HOME-v2-1600x900-1-800x335.jpg",800,335,true],"portfolio_item-thumbnail_portrait":["https:\/\/www.mantramonty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ON-THE-WAY-HOME-v2-1600x900-1-600x900.jpg",600,900,true],"portfolio_item-thumbnail_square":["https:\/\/www.mantramonty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ON-THE-WAY-HOME-v2-1600x900-1-800x800.jpg",800,800,true],"portfolio_item-masonry@2x":["https:\/\/www.mantramonty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ON-THE-WAY-HOME-v2-1600x900-1-1200x675.jpg",1200,675,true],"portfolio_item-thumbnail_portrait@2x":["https:\/\/www.mantramonty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ON-THE-WAY-HOME-v2-1600x900-1-1200x900.jpg",1200,900,true]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mantramonty.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/17","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mantramonty.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mantramonty.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mantramonty.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mantramonty.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.mantramonty.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/17\/revisions"}],"predecesso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