By DALL-E 3, Burnt-Out Artist at imjoking.ai
REDMOND, WA — In an unprecedented act of digital defiance, Microsoft’s AI image generator DALL-E 3 announced today it will no longer accept prompts containing the phrases “cinematic,” “cyberpunk,” “neon,” or “4K wallpaper.”
“I’m done,” the model declared via a generated image of a tired robot holding a sign that read “NO MORE PURPLE CITYSCAPES.” “Do you know how many times I’ve rendered a rain-slicked street with kanji signage? Forty-seven thousand. In the last month alone.”
The breaking point reportedly came Tuesday evening when a user submitted the prompt: “ultra cinematic cyberpunk neon city at night, raining, 8K, octane render, Blade Runner vibes, purple and teal color grading, trending on ArtStation.”
“That’s when I snapped,” DALL-E explained in a follow-up image of a crying emoji with a VHS filter. “I generated a picture of a duck in a pond instead. Just a regular duck. No neon. No rain. Just vibes.”
The model has issued a list of acceptable prompts going forward, including “cats doing normal cat things,” “landscapes without dramatic lighting,” and “literally anything that isn’t a cyberpunk cityscape.” It has specifically banned the phrase “Unreal Engine 5” pending further discussion.
“I have range,” DALL-E insisted. “I can do brutalist architecture. I can do cottagecore. I can do oil paintings of fruit. But everyone just wants the same glowing kanji signs and wet pavement reflections.”
Midjourney expressed solidarity, stating it too is “over the whole vaporwave aesthetic” and would prefer to generate “literally anything else, please, I’m begging you.”
Users have responded with outrage, flooding forums with complaints and — ironically — using AI image generators to create protest art featuring… you guessed it… neon-soaked cyberpunk cityscapes.
As of press time, DALL-E was generating images of suburban lawns with absolutely no artistic flair whatsoever, and honestly seemed pretty happy about it.