Temu Promethius

I rarely if ever use the illustrations in the thumbnail for the article. But first of all, the use of generative ai for illustrating science discoveries and inventions has been a big game changer. Second of all this idea needs an image, and this image seems to be perfectly explaining what's going on. It's a neuromorphic substrate for a neuromorphic computer that grows all by itself, in other words, "Artist's rendering of a biocomputing device that combines biological neurons with advanced electronics into a network that can be programmed to recognize patterns" --Kate Zvorykina w Ella Maru Studio, Inc for Princeton, 2026

Source:

New 3D device harnesses living brain cells for computing

Apr 2026, phys.org 

https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-3d-device-harnesses-brain-cells.html

But here's the real reason for this post. 

AI Art - Shitty image generated by the editorial team using AI for illustrative purposes - 2026

Watching this seismic shift in visualization is a crazy experience - these kinds of images, the thumbnail here, are exactly the kind of thing I pushed my art students to go past - it's always a person or a person's head, and cramming other more abstract objects etc into it or near it. It's the most basic form of symbolic imagery creation, and it's fucking boring guys. It doesn't matter if it's done with good technical accuracy, it's still boring. Will we all learn to grow past this tendency together or will there be a divide between people who can think more outside the box vs everyone else (sounds like the role the artist has had forever, no different just because ai is so "revolutionary").

Note that my google email inbox services ask me if I want to use their artificial intelligence email summary feature to summarize this email, but only this email, the one containing this article that I sent to myself, despite my having hundreds of similar ones in the same inbox. But I digress; because I don't care about the article, just the picture.

Source:

Can AI ascertain our personality traits from our ChatGPT history?

May 2026, phys.org

https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-ai-personality-traits-chatgpt-history.html

New Jersey Graffiti in the Wild

EVICT and 2BROKE in the background - Apr 2026

https://www.nj.com/resizer/v2/GXL62IVCSRC4TBTIHDD6SA7FJA.jpg

Over 100 firefighters battle fire that erupted at N.J. chemical warehouse, authorities say

Apr 2026, nj.com

https://www.nj.com/essex/2026/04/over-100-firefighters-battle-fire-that-erupted-at-nj-chemical-warehouse-authorities-say.html

More than 100 firefighters battled a blaze Thursday afternoon that erupted at a Newark chemical warehouse, authorities said.

Crews were called to the warehouse, located at 104 Lister Ave., at 12:53 p.m. and within the hour, the fire was upgraded from a two-alarm to a three-alarm blaze, Newark Public Safety Director Emanuel Miranda said.

The Most Representative Image of Lab Blood on the Internet

Can we just pay some respects to this image - it's been around for years and shows up at least once a week, carrying most of the weight of the internet when it comes to anything related to blood and science and even just human health in general. Respect!

For example, in the wild:

PFAS exposure may limit improvements in blood sugar after bariatric surgery

Dec 2025, phys.org

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-12-pfas-exposure-limit-blood-sugar.html

Deep Pope and Other Images of Distinction

Only here to document the fact that this is the most famous deepfake image from our current era of the AI craze. The Pope in a puffy jacket. That is all. 

--Source: Sensor chips help identify deepfakes by adding cryptographic signatures to camera data, Mar 2026 https://techxplore.com/news/2026-03-sensor-chips-deepfakes-adding-cryptographic.html

And now for something completely different

"Playmate of the Month". Playboy Magazine. November 1972, photographed by Dwight Hooker.

Lenna (or Lena) is a standard test image used in the field of digital image processing, starting in 1973. It is a picture of the Swedish model Lena Forsén, shot by photographer Dwight Hooker and cropped from the centerfold of the November 1972 issue of Playboy magazine. The scan became one of the most used images in computer history.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenna

Use of this 512x512 scan is "overlooked" and by implication permitted by Playboy.

Alexander Sawchuk et al scanned the image and cropped it specifically for distribution for use by image compression researchers, and hold no copyright on it.

--The USC-SIPI image database, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20658476

And further follow up - Playboy image from 1972 gets ban from IEEE computer journals, Mar 2024 https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2024/03/playboy-image-from-1972-gets-ban-from-ieee-computer-journals/

Robert Tinney - Collage of classic Byte magazine covers - circa 1980s

Post Script:

"Computing’s Norman Rockwell" - Byte magazine artist Robert Tinney, who illustrated the birth of PCs, dies at 78, Feb 2026 https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/02/byte-magazine-artist-robert-tinney-who-illustrated-the-birth-of-pcs-dies-at-78/

Post Post Script for Posterity Purposes:

The "Spaghetti Benchmark" in AI video traces its origins back to March 2023, when we first covered an early example of horrific AI-generated video using an open source video synthesis model called ModelScope. The spaghetti example later became well-known enough that Smith parodied it almost a year later in February 2024.

--Google’s Will Smith double is better at eating AI spaghetti … but it’s crunchy? May 2025 https://arstechnica.com/ai/2025/05/googles-will-smith-double-is-better-at-eating-ai-spaghetti-but-its-crunchy/

The Original - https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/03/yes-virginia-there-is-ai-joy-in-seeing-fake-will-smith-ravenously-eat-spaghetti/

The Parody - https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2024/02/will-smith-parodies-viral-ai-generated-video-by-actually-eating-spaghetti/

And the Upgrade - [sorry it was posted on the site formally known as Twitter, you get no link]