AI and Randomness

Random Seed vs. Locked seed?

Author

Nejc Susec
July 03, 2024 • Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes

Hello Friend

Welcome to this week’s lesson on AI workflows, techniques, tools and everything else that will help you use AI to enhance and elevate your work as a creative.

Have you heard of the “seed”?

The seed is referred to the random number assigned to our image/video generations. It represents the specific location of the image inside the latent space, which AI is drawing from to create images.

In a recent live event I talked with Maged Elbanna. He shared one of his ComfyUI workflows and we ended up on the topic of reducing randomness.

It’s a big topic in the world of AI. How to reduce the randomness?

Let’s talk about it.

Every time we generate and image or a video, it is assigned a seed. This seed is a number that represents the coordinates of our generation inside the latent space.

Which can look something like this:

It’s huge. The number and the latent space. It is the space that contains all the data the AI is trained on. This data is converted into tokens and distributed across the space. You can think of each token as a word or a concept. For example - cat, car, ice cream.

Each seed number is effectively one image inside this space. Created with a specific prompt and parameters we set.

Which means, if we lock the seed and use the same prompt with the same parameters, the image will be the same.

Seed number: 4138213622

Prompt: Photograph of a nature scene with vibrant and detailed elements. A majestic mountain range surrounded by lush meadows. The scene is illuminated by dramatic twilight, creating a mystical and ethereal atmosphere. In the foreground, tall grasses add texture and depth, while in the background, a clear blue sky enhances the overall composition. The colors are rich and varied, with deep purples and reds highlighting the natural beauty of the environment.

What happens when we lock the seed and change the prompt or the parameters?

Well, we can introduce changes in a controlled environment.

Same seed, same parameters, same prompt = same image.

When we change one of these, let’s say the prompt, we can see what kind of changes the AI will do with it.

Seed number: 4138213622

Prompt - Photograph of a nature scene with vibrant and detailed elements. A majestic mountain range surrounded by lush meadows. The scene is illuminated by bright daylight. In the foreground, tall grasses add texture and depth, while in the background, a clear blue sky enhances the overall composition. The colors are rich and varied, with bright yellows and orange highlighting the natural beauty of the environment.

Working with a fixed seed allows us to clearly see how AI responds to our changes. It is a great exercise in creating with AI. In learning how AI understands our communication - prompts, parameters.

It can deepen our understanding of what AI is capable of, how it interprets our input and what we can create with it.

Homework

I would challenge you to lock the seed and create something intentional.

Pick a theme or a topic. Write a prompt and create a few images. Choose one and lock the seed. Use the same seed to introduce changes to the image.

See how far you can get. How much you can push AI with the changes you want to do.

This will help you learn the limitations of AI. How it understands our communication and how it generates images according to it.

As creators using AI, our goal is to reduce the time it takes to go from the vision in our minds to seeing it in front of our eyes.

You can also watch the event with Maged, where he shared how he uses this approach in his workflow.

Whenever you’re ready, here are three ways I can help you: