Generative AI’s distinctive power lies in its ability to replay, and redistribute decision patterns extracted from the works of artists and authors, enabling anyone (AI users, Big Tech, or even birds) to produce results with ever-shrinking mental effort.
This experiment explores how far an augmented bird can get, compared against human AI users.
Artificial intelligence increasingly allows people to accomplish complex tasks with a fraction of the mental effort that traditional methods once required.
Across domains like software development, writing, education, and customer service, AI systems let users rely on high-level intuition or minimal input while the machine handles the heavy cognitive lifting.
Those who frequently let AI do the thinking showed a decline in their own ability to analyze and problem-solve. This classic “use it or lose it” scenario suggests that birds may be more cognitively efficient than average AI users.
Should OpenAI’s roadmap prove correct, the birds may soon reach a point where their capabilities exceed the collective mental capacity of thousands of human AI users. Currently (mid 2025) they operate at Level 2.
LEVEL 1 - Basic bird-AI interaction
The bird selects between six options shown on a screen by pecking one of six buttons, each baited with a mealworm. These choices correspond to parameters like composition, color and symmetry on abstract, generative images or symbols created with StyleGAN2.
The final image is interpreted by a large language model (LLM), which generates a plausible prompt, imagining what the bird might have intended to express through its decisions.
Bird-generated concept [excerpt: 100/250 words]
PROMPT: robotic features, reflection, glowing golden wires with intricate details, hyper realistic photography in the style of editorial pose, photorealistic, 8k, high render, Prismatic Nest Odyssey: intricate tapestry of nests, woven from ethereal threads of luminescent feathers and twigs, pulsing with a radiant glow; [...] Michelangelo-like quality, where divine shape and function meet celestial awe, shimmering with futurism and nostalgia; encapsulates a narrative of rebirth and cosmic connectivity, a utopian flight of imagination bridging earthly reality and celestial fantasy; [...] suggesting a sanctuary where stardust mingles with nature's artistry, challenging and redefining the parameters of digital creation.
PROMPT: robotic features, reflection, glowing golden wires with intricate details, hyper realistic photography in the style of editorial pose, photorealistic, 8k, high render, Prismatic Nest Odyssey: intricate tapestry of nests, woven from ethereal threads of luminescent feathers and twigs, pulsing with a radiant glow; [...] Michelangelo-like quality, where divine shape and function meet celestial awe, shimmering with futurism and nostalgia; encapsulates a narrative of rebirth and cosmic connectivity, a utopian flight of imagination bridging earthly reality and celestial fantasy; [...] suggesting a sanctuary where stardust mingles with nature's artistry, challenging and redefining the parameters of digital creation.
LEVEL 2 - Conceptual images and evolving strategies
In Level 2, the system builds on the prompts generated in Level 1. Based on the bird’s earlier choices, new combinations of prompts are presented, enabling more complex and conceptual image generation. At this stage, birds can also revise or reinterpret prompts created by human-AI users. Initial experimental results indicate that bird-guided revisions achieved higher aesthetic scores—rising from 7.2 (human AI user) to 7.8 (bird), according to LAION-Aesthetics Predictor.
This Level is currently under construction and optimization.
LEVEL 3 - Recruit humans, build allies, confront opponents
Under construction...
TIMING
Estimated days remaining until the ability to fully replace every human AI user is reached
(Based on average timelines projected by leading AI lab CEOs.)
(Based on average timelines projected by leading AI lab CEOs.)
RESULTS
Whenever the bird completes an artwork, a scientific poster accompanies it, detailing the time of creation, the weather, and the sequence of decisions behind the image.
