# So, apparently AI can create amazing optical illusions **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** ai\ **Created:** [October 20, 2023, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-ai-can-create-amazing-optical-illusions/991845 "2023-10-20T16:27:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![DKW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dkw/32/3118_2.png) [@DKW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DKW)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2024, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-ai-can-create-amazing-optical-illusions/991845/101 "2024-03-11T00:40:57Z")
I’m willing to believe that AI can make very nice visual metaphors (the stuff in the OP isn’t exactly optical illusions), but I’m going to have to see some better examples. Most of the time you can see exactly what the program whiffed on (nonsense words are always a dead giveaway). I could never get that stupid Magic Eye stuff to work. I tried _everything_, dammit. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2024, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-ai-can-create-amazing-optical-illusions/991845/102 "2024-03-11T17:52:31Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > A few days ago I saw a Magic Eye picture that was moving! Interestingly, so did I. It was a galloping horse. Mine continued to stay clear. > [@DKW](#): > > (the stuff in the OP isn’t exactly optical illusions) Argued earlier upthread. I contend it is. > [@DKW](#): > > I could never get that stupid Magic Eye stuff to work. I tried _everything_, dammit. Some are easier than others. [I find this one to be fairly eas](https://qph.cf2.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-1351ebe1f1761a27e214d1230d03f9b9-pjlq)y to resolve. After opening the link. Try to imagine the rectangle is is an opening. Then, as if it were a window, try looking far off into the distance. Once you see a shape start to form, concentrate on it. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2024, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-ai-can-create-amazing-optical-illusions/991845/103 "2024-03-11T21:58:28Z")
That Magic Eye is almost too easy: I found it easy to get not just the 0th (2-D) and 1st (Mickey Mouse) alignments, but also to accidentally get the 2nd alignment, which produced a cartoon animal with a narrower face and the circular ears distorted into something resembling cow horns. And by actively trying, I was even able to get a 3rd and 4th alignment, producing much more distorted 3D images. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2024, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-ai-can-create-amazing-optical-illusions/991845/104 "2024-03-11T22:01:05Z")
I’m glad to hear that. This is literally the first magic eye I have tried since my cataract replacement surgeries last year, and for a minute I couldn’t make it work, but then finally I got the mouse, and then I got other stuff. I was laying that off to the new lenses, but then I went to the magic eye website & I was able to see a bunch of images normally. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2024, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-ai-can-create-amazing-optical-illusions/991845/105 "2024-03-11T22:12:39Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > That Magic Eye is almost too easy: I found it easy to get not just the 0th (2-D) and 1st (Mickey Mouse) alignments, but also to accidentally get the 2nd alignment, which produced a cartoon animal with a narrower face and the circular ears distorted into something resembling cow horns. And by actively trying, I was even able to get a 3rd and 4th alignment, producing much more distorted 3D images. I didn’t get those so went back to it to see if I could find them. I kept getting the intended image so I sort of crossed my eyes and the image reversed itself front to back! In other words, flat surface was in the front and the character, rather than protruding forward, was facing the ‘back’ (as it it were a mask). Weird. I wonder if that effect will work on them all if you look at them just right? ETA: I think you can. I was able to see not only the [seahorses in front of a field](https://joyerickson.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/magic-eye1.jpg?w=487&h=352), but, in addition, a ‘sheet’ with seahorse cutouts. Very strange. ---
**Author:** ![brasstacks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d26b3c/32.png) [@brasstacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brasstacks)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2024, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-ai-can-create-amazing-optical-illusions/991845/106 "2024-03-11T22:23:34Z")
That’s awesome. I’ll have to save that first one for a difficult situation that may happen later on. ---
**Author:** ![Kron](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kron/32/12444_2.png) [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2024, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-ai-can-create-amazing-optical-illusions/991845/107 "2024-03-12T04:20:02Z")
> [@Lucas\_Jackson](#): > > I sort of crossed my eyes and the image reversed itself front to back! That’s the only way I have ever been able to do the Magic Eye pictures, in inverted 3-D by crossing my eyes. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2024, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-ai-can-create-amazing-optical-illusions/991845/108 "2024-03-13T23:09:21Z")
What you’re doing is focusing in _front_ of the image. Most Magic Eye images work by relaxing your eyes until you’re focusing _behind_ the image (or “farther away” if that makes more sense). ---
**Author:** ![Zyada](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zyada/32/3028_2.png) [@Zyada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zyada)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2024, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-ai-can-create-amazing-optical-illusions/991845/109 "2024-03-14T00:01:52Z")
The first magic eye I was able to see was plastic wrapped. I looked at my reflection in the plastic and the image popped out ---
**Author:** ![DKW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dkw/32/3118_2.png) [@DKW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DKW)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2024, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-ai-can-create-amazing-optical-illusions/991845/110 "2024-03-15T04:23:33Z")
Got bits of vaguely Mickey Mouse-like outlines, but that’s it. Gah, I give up. Why are all the fun things impossible for me? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-ai-can-create-amazing-optical-illusions/991845.md?page=5)