Work

Navigating the manifold: A transformative approach to AI image generation

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Using an external starting image and sparse action prompts, Transformative AI treats image generation as iterative navigation through an irregular, high-dimensional manifold. This user-guided process preserves expressive development and explores regions apparently inaccessible to text-to-image workflows. I illustrate this with an example and compare it to a text-to-image equivalent.

Source: Patterns

DOI: 10.1016/j.patter.2026.101539

Author: Alec D. MacCall

Institutions: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Farallon Institute

Language: English

Topic: Generative Adversarial Networks and Image Synthesis

Subfield: Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition

Field: Computer Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $4,900

OpenAlex ID: W7153272809

FWCI:

Cites: 2

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