Noida-based policy researcher uses AI to portray snow in Delhi

In Angshuman Choudhury’s tweet, the Capital is shown enveloped in a blanket of snow amid the cold wave in Delhi. As the temperature in the city drops to three degrees Celsius, this AI art is getting all the reason to go viral.

The cold wave in North India is not just causing winter chills and shivers, but also inspiring creativity of some. While living in Delhi might feel like a hill station, Noida-based Angshuman Choudhury imagines how the city would look like if it got engulfed in snow. Choudhury’s creativity, conceived using Artifical Intelligence (AI) has resulted in a viral social media post.

Winter becomes the muse for 29-year-old Assamese, whose imagination of Delhi as a snowy city is going viral on social media. (Photos: Angshuman Choudhury/Twitter)

Angshuman Choudhury works as a policy researcher at an independent think tank in Delhi.

Choudhury, who works as a full-time policy researcher, seldom finds the time to indulge in his passion of painting, photography, and filmmaking. “AI has bypassed the futility of spending hours, if not days, on the same thing. You can create things instantly,” he shares, adding how this medium is a powerful tool especially for young artists on a shoestring budget.

The iconic landmark of India Gate stands tall on a snowy day, as imagined by Choudhury.

Choudhury feels AI is much less time taking, and adds, “Most people are slowly moving away from only quality, and prioritising speed and quantity. The audience wants more and more content, and as fast as possible... A lot of filmmakers would need to create story boards by hand before even starting the process of making a film and that takes a lot of time and money. But with AI, all you have to do is feed in a bunch of prompts based on your imagination and it can create the wildest of the visuals you need, in mere seconds!”

A peek of the snowed in Lodhi Gardens in Delhi, as visualised by Choudhury using AI.

But, Choudhury opines there’s also a downside to AI-generated art. “The AI space is very new and collaborative, but it’s rapidly replacing the human elements. At the end of the day, it’s a machine which is regurgitating broad inputs and stereotypes being fed to it in bulk,” he adds.

The city of Kolkata moves on unimpeded in a snow storm, as depicted by Choudhury.

With the pen replacing the quill, computers replacing typewriters, and stylus replacing the paintbrush, times are always a ’changing. “Today, AI is democratising the visual arts,” feels Choudhury, adding, “Creativity is no longer being hindered by the inability to paint or operate Photoshop. You can be on an equal footing with artists the world over, and I see it as a logical progression.”

Author tweets @KritiKambiri

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