A word on generated images.

You might have noticed that I've used AI-generated images across the vdam.io website. I'm not hiding it. In fact, you can probably find the nanobanana watermark on some of them.

I support artists' rights, but I also see that the nature of work is changing wildly. Generating and editing images with AI is becoming a standard part of people's workflows. The creators whose work these massive AI models trained on should be compensated in some meaningful way for that content, and I hope institutions and governments make it right. Bernie Sanders has floated an AI sovereign wealth fund that would make the largest AI companies 50% publicly owned. Legislation like that deserves to be taken more seriously. The entities that have taken from the public need to give back in some meaningful way.

Built on a minimal budget.

I built this site on a minimal budget, using the tools I knew how to use. Some of the images have that plasticky feel to them. Some actually look decent. And some look like circa-2025 generic stock AI photography slop. I plan to update the site eventually with real photography — made from a camera, not a GPU. For now, I need images here to convey the potential of what VDAM can be, and how it can help.

An idea I'm considering.

A future enhancement I'm weighing: letting you select a handful of your own images and use them as input into a newly generated image, guided by those images and your prompt. If there's interest in this kind of capability, I'd consider building it out. People with some creative-tech chops can already do this with the AI tools and services out there — but what VDAM brings to the table is the ability to quickly and easily surface exactly what you're looking for. Building features like this is precisely the kind of feedback I'd like to gather from users.

If that idea speaks to you, tell me. Write to [email protected] — or, in the app, prompt your 'feedback' and it'll get to me. Thanks!

Field notes from VDAM — written by a human.