The 9 Coolest AI Images Ever Generated

Last Updated: June 9, 2023

a group of people standing in front of a giant circle.

AI image-rendering programs have become all the rage in the last few months since late 2022. This is with good reason.

After years of barely being able to create coherent visuals that often looked more like post-brain hemorrhage nightmares of damaged perception, the latest AI image-generating technologies use cutting-edge AI to deliver charming and often photo-realistic images.

Some of today’s best programs include Midjourney (especially version 5.0), Dall-E, and Stable Diffusion among others. They have been used in different ways to create spectacular visuals and photorealistic renderings, even if each platform has unique quirks.

With all of these advancements in the AI under the hood of these programs, the text prompting necessary to make great images still isn’t easy.

Despite the mostly stunning examples we’re about to show you, the people behind creating them and others often have to spend hours guiding their AI of choice into making something cool.

With that said, here are some examples of genuinely excellent, or at least interesting AI-rendered art from across the web. Several are selections courtesy of Twitter user Alex Brogan while others are my own picks:

1. Selfies from the Stone Age

Definitely a hilarious modern take on some of the scarier moments that our ancient ancestors might have suffered in their rough-and-tumble daily lives.

“Selfies from the Stone Age” showcases nearly photorealistic artistic renderings of exactly what you’d guess.

a man running with a lion in the background.

2. Formula One chariot racer in the Roman Empire

This alternate past spin with what you could almost call steampunk art renders one seriously cool concept for motorized racing in the Circus Maximus of ancient Rome.

a man driving a race car in front of a large building.

3. Steve Jobs, Apple Seller

The title of this charming piece of AI art means exactly what it says, literally, and it’s amusing as hell. The AI even got the hands right.

a man holding an apple in front of a display of apples.

4. Haribo Gummy Bears out for an NYC stroll

The gummies themselves look a bit off from their real-life versions, but this image of them doing a Beatles-style crosswalk crossing in NYC is worth a smile.

a group of gummy bears walking across a street.

5. Titanic colliding with iceberg… lettuce

Why iceberg lettuce is called that, I don’t know, but given the name, why not play around with the concept in a historical sense? Note the number of funnels on the Titanic itself.

a large cruise ship in the water with icebergs.

6. Dwayne Johnson meets The Rock

These vaguely creepy renderings of a slightly deformed Dwayne Johnson meeting his absurdly huge The Rock double are weird, but oddly amusing too.

a collage of photos of the rock and dwayne.

7. One tasty BLT

If you saw this image in a magazine or food recipe website, you’d be hard-pressed to think it’s not real without really looking carefully. The BLT is a good example of how far AI recreations of real photos have come.

a sandwich with bacon and lettuce on a plate.

8. The interdimensional quantum camera

This particular bit of AI art isn’t quite so perfectly rendered, but it also plays on that very defect by making itself out to be a crazy little interdimensional machine. It definitely looks the part.

a camera with a lens attached to it.

9. “Théâtre D’opéra Spatial,”

This particular piece of AI-rendered art was even a controversial art competition prize winner at the 2022 Colorado State Fair under the “digital art/digitally manipulated photography” Category. It is rather captivating too.

a group of people standing in front of a giant circle.

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Stephan Jukic Shotkit Journalist, Writer & Reviewer

Stephan Jukic is a technology and photography journalist and experimental photographer who spends his time living in both Canada and Mexico. He loves cross-cultural street photo exploration and creating fine art photo compositions.