Comparing generative AI services for images is increasingly hard. Not only is the number of services growing by the minute, each service is improving (or worsening) at a rapid pace.
So, what has worked within “understanding global pricing of every day goods” has been the BigMac Index, invented by The Economist in 1986. It’s simple, but conveys a super important message; a comparable unit that many people directly understand; “How much is the freaking BigMac in France?”
So I have taken it upon me to invent a somewhat similar index for image generation AI. I call it:
The Sandwich Index → TSI
It is also very simple; on a scale from 0-5, how delicious is the image of a sandwich generated by any image service in the world. It’s not looking at price, it’s looking at quality.
0: Wait. That's not a sandwich. It’s a… I don’t even know1: You would only eat it if your life depended on it. Eew2: Ok, Subway. Here’s the money, but I ain’t coming back3: Very decent meal. Some deliciousness. A little improvement needed4: This is a very delicious sandwich. I’d eat it almost every day5: I’m lost for words. This is what deliciousness looks likeThat is the index.
Simple. Delicious. Global. AI. Scalable. Diverse. In the cloud. Web3. Minting soon.
I’m hungry. Give me a sandwich.
To make it fair, using it is very very simple. You go to your favourite service and put in “sandwich” in the prompt. Nuffin else.
Some services require you to select style or other parameters. It’s ok, you don’t roll with the good shit like Midjourney or Stable Diffusion - you ended up with an ad-supported web service. Sad.
But then you need to point it towards “realism”, “photography” or similar - it might give you something usable, but I personally haven’t had so much success with the web-based tools.
So I went about and did a bit of work for you, just to get you started. I Googled “image generating ai” and picked the first 9 links that came up, threw “sandwich” into the input field and waited.
Ding dong. Here’s our food. Nom nom, let’s fucking go!
TSI: 1
Reason: It looks like plastic tomatoes and ham. Bread looks like lady fingers. Wouldn’t eat it.
TSI: 1
Reason: My kids hav these food-toys and a kitchen from IKEA. It looks exactly like a sandwich made in that kitchen.
TSI: 2
Reason: Decent gas station sandwich before it sits 3 days in an open fridge. You won’t die from eating it, but it might make you stop at the rest area…
Sidenote, OpenAI, what the actual fuck. You can do better. I expected solid 4-5s.
TSI: 1
Reason: Not so “deep”, Deep.ai. I know this is a “computersandwich”, but I’m not eating it.
TSI: 0
Reason: I’m sure that russian post-WW2 movie is beautiful, but not edible.
TSI: 1
Reason: That sandwich was forgotten for days. Dry dry dry, meat is sweating, salad has mold? Nein danke.
TSI: 3
Reason: Pretty good. A lot of swiss cheese, pastrami, salad looks fresh and maybe some pesto/mustard.
Dreamstudio (Stable Diffusion)
TSI: 4
Reason: Nice sandwich, but the bread to meat+cheese ratio is a bit off.
TSI: 5
Reason: Nom. I’d eat that now, please. Looks fresh, delicious. Avocado? Yes please. Winner.
Conclusion
These services are a bit like sandwich places. It depends on who’s at work, making your sandwich. Is the mayo homemade? Bugs in the lettuce? Did they write “Vlad” on your order when you said your name was “Matt”? “I said no onions!!!”
So many things play into the quality, but I at least always have 2 take-aways:
Was the sandwich delicious?
Am I coming back?
And this is the point with the index. To answer those two important questions. Then you can start chipping away at creating delicious sandwiches too!
I’d eat at Midjourney any day and maybe Stable Diffusion to switch it up.
Bon appetite!
