How Much Energy One AI Prompt Really Uses
Google measured a median prompt at 0.24 watt-hours and five drops of water. Mistral reported 45 millilitres for one response. The gap is not a disagreement…
Technology & Digital Culture
Making sense of the tools shaping how we create, work, and live
Public Art Now covers practical technology: AI tools, software, gadgets, and the digital culture growing around them. No hype cycles, just clear takes and hands-on guides.
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What Happens If You Use a Font Without a Licence
The letterforms are not protected in the United States. The file that draws them is, as software, and that single distinction decides every font licensing dispute.
Who Actually Pays for Public Art
Public art is mostly a rounding error on a construction budget. That single fact explains why it is durable, where it appears, and why so little…
How to Make AI Animations From Still Images Without Paying
Last reviewed August 2026 Several free tools convert still images into short animations using AI. AnimateDiff running inside ComfyUI offers the most creative control for loops…
What Is ControlNet and Why It Changed AI Image Generation
Last reviewed August 2026 ControlNet is a neural network architecture that adds spatial conditioning to AI image diffusion models. It accepts reference inputs — edge maps,…
How Open-Source AI Rendering Caught Up With Paid Services
Last reviewed August 2026 Open-source AI image generation has closed the quality gap with paid services. Models like FLUX.1 and SDXL now match or exceed Midjourney…
Why AI Image Models Keep Getting Smaller and Better
Last reviewed August 2026 AI image models are getting smaller because of three converging techniques: knowledge distillation (training small models to mimic large ones), quantisation (reducing…
Free Alternatives to Midjourney That Run on Your Own Computer
Last reviewed August 2026 The best free alternatives to Midjourney that run entirely on local hardware are Fooocus, ComfyUI with FLUX, and Stable Diffusion through AUTOMATIC1111…
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