OCEAN MATERIAL | MAY 1TH 2025 | 6 MIN
#PictureTheProblem: How A Simple AI Tool Became a Global Call for Awareness
1. How did the idea come about? The idea behind #PictureTheProblem came from a simple but powerful question: How can we help people feel the urgency of today’s environmental crises? We’ve all seen the data on plastic pollution, deforestation, climate change and the global waste crisis – but numbers and facts rarely trigger deep emotional responses.
What if people could see themselves in the middle of these problems? What if, instead of distant statistics, they were part of the image? That was the spark.
2. Why use AI for the campaign? AI gave us the perfect tool. Not only could it generate powerful, personalized images, but it could also do so at scale. We didn’t want to build another app or social platform. We wanted to create a tool that was emotionally impactful, technically accessible, and visually unforgettable.
AI allows us to turn abstract data into something immediate and personal. When you see your own face floating in a sea of plastic or surrounded by tree stumps, the issue becomes much harder to ignore.
3. Why Instant Studio? We chose Instant Studio because we needed more than just technical execution – we needed creative, intuitive, and reliable partners. The team behind Instant Studio are our “AI magicians”: fast, open-minded, and able to turn ambitious ideas into a user-friendly experience in record time.
Their system allowed us to build a seamless, no-login interface that works on any device and respects users’ privacy. It was important to us that people could engage easily without giving away their data.
4. What is the goal of the campaign? This is not a commercial project. The goal is to raise awareness by creating personal, emotional experiences. We want people to reflect, share, or simply feel something. The tool doesn’t preach or prescribe. It invites participation and conversation.
Whether someone shares their image publicly or keeps it to themselves doesn’t matter. The moment of reflection is already a step in the right direction.
5. What about data protection? We take privacy seriously.
- No data is stored permanently.
- The tool runs on private servers, not shared cloud environments.
- No login is required.
- No personal data is collected or used for marketing.
All image uploads are deleted after a short period, and the entire experience is fully non-commercial. Our aim is to create impact, not collect clicks.
6. What about energy usage and sustainability of AI? AI tools often receive criticism for their energy consumption. However, tools like ours are highly efficient. We use a pre-trained model (such as Stable Diffusion) to generate single images, which requires only a fraction of the energy needed by tools like ChatGPT or large-scale cloud services.
To put it in perspective: each image generation consumes roughly the same energy as one or two Google searches.
And sometimes we forget that AI can help reduce emissions: No flights or film crews are needed to create these powerful visuals. Just one upload.
We don’t produce waste. We talk about it.
In Summary: #PictureTheProblem is a new way of creating environmental awareness: visual, emotional, and personal. It’s powered by AI, driven by purpose, and made for anyone who believes that the first step toward change is seeing the problem clearly.
Try it here: www.instantstudio.ai/oceanmaterial
01.05.2025
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