A New Image File Format

I wanted to download an image file that was in avis file format. This was a format that I'd never seen before. I asked Bard for information about it. Here is what it came up with:

AVIF stands for AV1 Image File Format. It is a royalty-free image file format that uses the AV1 video codec for compression. AVIF files are typically smaller than JPEG or WebP files, while maintaining or even improving image quality.

AVIF files are supported by a growing number of image viewers, including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Apple Preview. They can also be converted to other image formats, such as JPEG or PNG.

Here are some of the advantages of using AVIF files:

They are smaller than JPEG or WebP files, while maintaining or even improving image quality.

They are royalty-free, so they can be used without any licensing fees.

They are supported by a growing number of image viewers.

Here are some of the disadvantages of using AVIF files:

They are not as widely supported as JPEG or WebP files.

They may not be compatible with older image viewers.

Overall, AVIF files are a promising new image format that offers a number of advantages over JPEG and WebP files. As more image viewers support AVIF files, they are likely to become more widely used.

Here are some of the features of AVIF files:

Support for multiple color spaces, including HDR and SDR.

Lossless compression and lossy compression.

Transparency support.

Animation support.

AVIF files are a good choice for a variety of applications, including:

Online images, such as those used on websites or in email.

Digital images, such as those used in photography or graphics design.

Video thumbnails.

If you are looking for an image format that offers high image quality and small file sizes, AVIF is a good option to consider.

I downloaded the avis image and tried to upload it to this blog but the server rejected it. Thus one of the disadvantages (not as widely supported as JPEG or WebP files) becomes immediately apparent. In Linux Mint, the only image program that would open it was GIMP and I was able to use this to export the image as JPEG. See below:

So that was interesting. Here is some further information (source):

AV1 Image File Format (AVIF) is an encoding based on the open source AV1 video codec. AVIF is even newer—than WebP, only supported in Chrome and Opera since 2020, Firefox in 2021, and Safari in 2022. As with WebP, AVIF aims to address every conceivable use case for raster images on the web: GIF-like animation, PNG-like transparency, and improved perceptual quality at file sizes smaller than JPEG or WebP.

So far, AVIF shows promise. A testing framework developed by Netflix—a founding member of the Alliance for Open Media, the group responsible for the development of the AV1 codec—shows significant reductions in file sizes when compared to JPEG or WebP. Additional studies by Cloudinary and Chrome's codecs team have weighed it favorably against current encoding standards.

Bard

I played around with Google Bard last night and again today. Previously, I had only used ChatGPT but Bard is able to accept images as input and I tried it out with the image shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1

Here was the prompt that I gave Bard after uploading the image:

Can you recognize where this image came from and say something about what it represents?

The response was as follows:

 The image you sent me is a painting called The School of Athens by Raphael. It was painted in the early 16th century and is now housed in the Vatican Museums in Rome. The painting depicts a group of scholars and philosophers from different eras gathered in a courtyard. The central figure is Plato, who is pointing to the heavens, while Aristotle is pointing to the earth. Other figures in the painting include Pythagoras, Socrates, Euclid, and Archimedes.

The School of Athens is considered one of the greatest masterpieces of Renaissance art. It is a celebration of learning and the pursuit of knowledge. The painting also reflects Raphael's own interest in philosophy and science.

The image you sent me is a reproduction of The School of Athens. It is a common sight in schools and libraries, and it represents the importance of education. The painting is a reminder that we should all strive to learn and grow, and that knowledge is the key to enlightenment.

Interesting response but totally wrong. Figure 2 shows what The School of Athens painting looks like:

Figure 2

The image shown in Figure 1 was taken from the dust jacket of my original copy of The Glass Bead Game so I tried this prompt:

I'm afraid that you are wrong. The painting has something to do with Herman Hesse's Glass Bead Game I think. Does this help?

The response was:

You are correct. The painting I was thinking of is not The School of Athens, but rather The Glass Bead Game by Paul Klee. It was painted in 1921 and is now housed in the Zentrum Paul Klee in Bern, Switzerland. The painting depicts a group of figures playing a game with glass beads. The figures are all different ages and from different cultures, and they are all wearing robes that represent different disciplines of knowledge.

The Glass Bead Game is a central metaphor in Hesse's novel of the same name. In the novel, the Glass Bead Game is a complex and demanding intellectual pursuit that synthesizes all of the arts and sciences. The game is played by a select group of individuals who are known as Glass Bead Players.

The painting by Klee is a visual representation of the Glass Bead Game. It shows the game as a kind of cosmic dance, in which all of the different disciplines of knowledge are interconnected. The painting is a celebration of the human intellect and the power of art to unite people from all walks of life.

I apologize for the confusion. I am still under development and learning to identify different paintings. Thank you for providing me with the correct information.

Clearly, image analysis still has some way to go in Bard. What's disturbing is the confidence with which these AI bots output totally false information.