KDE will be 30 years old this year and Katie updates her look!

[f4grx@chaos.social]

@kde please tell me a real artist made that.

[f4grx@chaos.social]

@kde what the F is this?

[nazokiyoubinbou@urusai.social]

@f4grx @kde Looks like a resize I think? Possibly the original was very low resolution (perhaps from an old icon file left over somewhere?) rather than the original source which may not have been kept.

[curtmack@floss.social]

@f4grx @kde looks like scaling artifacts from something like Waifu2x (which is not gen AI). Also, it's from 2001.

The 2026 art is rough, but also doesn't look like AI. You can clearly see clean brush strokes throughout the art, which is not something you would expect in AI-generated art. My guess is that the version in the second image was a quick-and-dirty draft, and then the artist made the cleaned-up art in the first picture.

[mrgrumpymonkey@mastodon.social]

@nazokiyoubinbou @kde We were all went through that 2001 phase. Ya know, because it was the style at the time.

[yukari@fedinet.waltuh.cyou]

@kde Congrtaz the mascot look aging in reverse

[curtmack@floss.social]

@f4grx @kde (okay technically Waifu2x is "generative AI," in the sense that it uses a convolutional neural network to produce its output, but it's from 2015, doesn't consume nearly as much electricity or water, and doesn't plagiarize the entire Internet, so it's categorically different IMO.)

[ridge@tilde.zone]

@nazokiyoubinbou @f4grx @kde Yes, Nazo is correct. This is the old version of Katie from 2001 as it implies. It is showcased here: https://timeline.kde.org/

[cimb4@norden.social]

@kde katie is now flstudio colored! maybe flchan and katie can hang out in ubuntu studio or something ehehe, also, who yanked the last drawing away from tyson, half the image is still a sketch

[f4grx@chaos.social]

@ridge @nazokiyoubinbou @kde nice, thanks!

[f4grx@chaos.social]

@curtmack @kde yeah, no problem with waifu2x

[ridge@tilde.zone]

@f4grx Of course Just as allergic to AI and related guff as you, so I get it.

[micdan@mstdn.party]

@kde I can see Rule 34 artists also happy with the update lmao

[arpie4math@mathstodon.xyz]

@kde Looking good for 30, maybe she doesn't jog but at least looks open to it. Sadly, the BSD Daemon (originally by Phil Foglio, but reworked a bit since) is finding that potbelly isn't looking so cherubic as the years drag on. (He also seems to have lost all of his hair since the very first illustration.)

[noctilua@social.noleron.com]

@kde

Hmmm yellow
Banana

[dobiko@fedi.dobiko.net]

@kde@floss.social We need to bring back the 2001 Katie

[janriemer@floss.social]

@kde Nawww, cutie!🥰

[glowl@chaos.social]

@erininstereo @kde and/or kiki.

[theotheroracle@solarpunk.moe]

@kde yayyy i love her

[b@mrrp.place]

@f4grx @kde the alt text says that it's Tyson Tan's art, and considering how on the linked page they give "Take 30 techbros to court so they stop building AI datacenters" as a way to save the environment, i think it's pretty unlikely they would have used generative AI for it