I'll try to go in the order the images appear. In the first post:
1.) "Mike is visibly pregnant, lying on a hospital bed in intense pain. His face is determined as he bears down. The hospital room is clean and modern, with a calm, sterile atmosphere. Mike is naked from the waist down and his legs apart. The doctor is looking between Mike's legs as the baby's head begins to crown."
2.) "A Sikh man, about forty-five years old and visibly pregnant, lies on a hospital bed in extreme pain. He is bearing down, and his face reflects heavy concentration. His legs are spread open toward the camera, and a doctor is watching the baby emerge from between his legs."
The third prompt was suggested by Ideogram. It will occasionally suggest "magic prompts," which--as you can see--contain literary details that go beyond my somewhat pervy interests.
3.) "A poignant, powerful image of a man in labor, visibly pregnant and experiencing contractions. He is seen sitting in a chair, breathing deeply with a determined expression on his face. The room is adorned with a soft, warm lighting, and there's a loving partner by his side providing support. The overall mood of the image is tender, emotional, and groundbreaking, challenging societal norms and expectations."
The second post contains riffs on the second of my prompts from above:
1.) I asked for "A South Asian man, about twenty years old," and added "The doctor is saying, 'Push, Vijay'." (Yes, this was inspired by the old mpreg story "Make Womb for Vijay," for those who recall it.)
2.) I asked for "A South Asian man, about forty years old."
I've concluded a few things:
First, Ideogram is amazing at creating photo-real bodies and matching them to likely ages as requested, down to photo-real muscle and chest-hair patterns. It's also good at approximating the appearance of people from specific parts of the world. It will even do some photo-real images of celebrities when prompted, though these are hit-and-miss.
Second, bellies, babies crowning, and genitals rarely photo-real. Sometimes a man will be depicted giving birth to an adult head, or to an arm or a leg, but rarely to a convincing baby. Either the AI is censoring these on purpose, or it hasn't developed enough to make them photo-real yet.
Third, Ideogram won't complete any prompt it deems "Not safe." Instead, you'll get a picture of a concerned cat holding a sign saying, "Maybe not safe.
What I'm not sure of yet and would love to know is whether these "not safe" images can somehow be revealed. Once created, they continue to exist with the prompts to which they're attached.
