Study Creative AI at Mars College

Prompt engineering and generative AI curriculum for the 2023 quarter on Mars

Mars College

Oct 09, 2022

This year at Mars College, we are excited to introduce the Creative AI major.

AI art is having a Cambrian explosion of generative systems like GPT-3, DALL-E, and Stable Diffusion.

futuristic desert nomads clad in cyberpunk electrical unicycle attire

Off-grid cyberpunk vanlife explorer surveying mars oasis

These images were generated in seconds by one of the many chatbots on our Discord server. They are able to depict virtually anything in any style, on command, from just a text prompt.

Similar systems for generating video, 3D, and audio are beginning to appear, and we intend to study them as well. The prompting revolution has begun.

Why Prompters Should Move to the Desert

A new guild is rising. The guild of the prompter.

Prompters are pioneers of the art and science of talking to computers in natural language. This discipline will radically transform the way we interact with computers, even how we program them.

To the next generation of people on the internet, prompting will be an indispensable skill, and the source of their livelihood. Already, subcultures are forming around diverse niches, from making digital art, to writing poetry, to creating virtual avatars, and more.

Prompt engineering is a complementary profession to desert life. Van dwellers, snowbirds, and rubber tramps of all stripes can support their itinerant lifestyle by joining the heavily internet-oriented prompt economy. Digital artists, copywriters, web designers, and many other creative professionals can make a living online as remote workers specialized in prompting and automation, foregoing the need to commute to some expensive and cramped urban cluster.

Making this idyllic lifestyle attainable for most people is core to Mars College’s mission. Practicing the art of self-reliance, camping off-grid in the harshest of environments, and bracing ourselves against climate change and supply chain disruption future-proofs us to an uncertain world. High-tech nomads will prevail and thrive in the desert.

a film still of an adventurer kid with cyber gear riding an electric unicycle on a desert with rocks, cactus, mountains

AI Art Major

Our third Mars College is coming up.

Since last year, some Martians have been building tools for customizing and deploying generative AI models in the cloud, letting students and residents make Discord bots, web applications, video art, zines, and more.

We’re taking the next step by introducing the AI major. We’ll show how to use text-to-image and large language models to spontaneously and interactively generate interesting stuff for us, in text and image form. Majors will be tasked with producing a final project on top of these tools, and collaborate on a large installation on Mars.

Veteran prompt engineers, earn your black belt here. Those new to prompting, you will learn and adapt quickly.