Puzzle enthusiasts’ pleasure is measured in the smallest of details: the exact shade of pink on a peony’s petal, a small sliver of a man’s plaid shirt, the tiniest glint of sunlight reflecting off a wave’s crest. It’s in the knowledge that every piece has a proper place, and the idea that seemingly infinite chaos has a solution. Hobbyists spend hours studying a pile of disparate pieces, inspecting each one closely, sorting them accordingly, and fusing them all back together. That intense examination — of patterns, of colors, of speckles, etc. — is integral to completing this challenge, to solving this beautifully vexing enigma. It also makes the presence of AI-generated images very obvious, and very annoying.
The hobby that AI is ruining for its fans
Every detail matters in puzzles, and details are where AI art often falls short.
Vincent Kilbride for Vox
Alex Abad-Santos is a senior correspondent who explains what society obsesses over, from Marvel and movies to fitness and skin care. He came to Vox in 2014. Prior to that, he worked at The Atlantic.
“Where else does a photo or painting have its details scrutinized as much as when someone is doing a puzzle?” David Swart, a jigsaw enthusiast, told Vox. “I’ve been to museums and seen famous art in Rome and New York. But only when doing a puzzle am I looking for the little branch that has a white fleck on the tip.”
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