Today’s find: Image Playground

Took a peek this week at how Siri sees me, and the results were unbelievable.

“Unbelievable,” as in “Preposterous – that’s supposed to be me?”

Can’t say that I wasn’t warned. When you open Apple’s new “Image Playground” software, a footnote informs you that the tool is still in ‘Beta’ version and therefore “may create unexpected results.”

Judge for yourself. Here’s the AI-generated image of John…drawn in “sci-fi, sunset, vampire” mode:

Perhaps a little less ludicrous, here’s how Siri sees me in “adventure, hiker” mode.

I’ll give the image-generation software points for vibrancy and creativity I suppose. But facial-feature accuracy? I’d say there’s still a little work to be done. The “John” it creates doesn’t look much like the “John” I see in the mirror.

But maybe that’s a good thing. Perhaps it’s a blessing, an encouragement, to be shown what a better version of oneself might look like. There’s some of that going on in the scripture we hear at Mass today, I think. Notice how in the first reading, the often-dour prophet Jeremiah generates an unexpectedly positive image about the one “whose hope is the LORD”:

He is like a tree planted beside the waters that stretches out its roots to the stream: it fears not the heat when it comes; its leaves stay green; in the year of drought it shows no distress, but still bears fruit.

Then in the gospel passage, we’re told that Jesus looks up at his disciples – looks up at us – and sees something beautiful, something vibrant, something we might well be powerless to see on our own:

“Blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours. Blessed are you who are now hungry, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who are now weeping, for you will laugh.”

Cardinal John Henry Newman seems to have taken Jesus’ words to heart. He cultivated a personal spirituality focused not on the image he saw in the mirror, but on seeing himself through the eyes of Jesus. The words of his Radiance Prayer are well worth contemplating:

“Shine through me, [Jesus], and be so in me that every soul I come in contact with may feel Your presence in my soul…”

As I pray this prayer every day – and as I meditate on the beatitudes this week – I wonder a bit about their ability to do something new in me. Am I stuck with the image I see in the mirror? Or am I willing to take the risk that fully embracing Jesus “may create unexpected results” in me?

Let us pause now…to recall that we are in the presence of the Holy & Merciful One.

IHS