It turns out Mr. PG may be the perfect mascot to represent B.C. industry – at least, according to AI.
Craig Baird, who lives in Stoney Plain Alberta and hosts a history podcast called Canadian History Ehx, has been using AI for the past couple of months to generate Canadian history related images.
“I started making a hair metal Prime Ministers to kind of teach people about Canadian Prime Ministers, and then I did Prime Ministers as hobbits, and I did provinces as Muppets. A variety of things,” said Baird.
He’s been using a software called Midjourney which generates an image based on the information the user provides through prompts.
When he decided to create mascots based on the industries for each province – the results for B.C. ended up looking remarkably similar to Prince George’s beloved Mr. PG which stands at the intersection of Highway 97 and 16.
Although the AI generated mascot has a square head and is fully clothed, both are timber-based men with a yellow construction hat.
However, Baird didn’t notice the similarities between the two right away.
“Well, the funny thing is, I have done an episode of the history of Prince George and in that episode, I did talk about Mr. PG. but when I made it, I actually wasn't thinking about it until people start commenting,” explained Baird.
“I was familiar with it. It just never crossed my mind that it I looked like Mr. PG.”
When Baird shared his AI images, in a thread on Twitter people immediately started pointing out the similarities between the AI mascot and the real life Mr. PG.
“I thought it was great. I mean, it got people talking about it and sharing it and talking about various industries in Canada. Really, that's kind of the whole reason I'm doing this, to get people learning about the various provinces and the things within those provinces.”
Some of the other mascots AI generated through Baird’s prompts included a potato man for Prince Edward Island, a maple syrup creature from Quebec and a Zinc mining mouse from the Yukon.
Baird said he’s been interested in Canadian History ever since he grew up watching Canadian Heritage minutes on television in the 90s and after a career as a computer programmer and journalist he began his Canadian History podcast.
“The main thing is about teaching people about Canada, and Canada's history, but kind of in a fun, unique way,” added Baird.
I asked AI to generate mascots based on a major industry &in each province.
— Craig Baird - Canadian History Ehx (@CraigBaird) June 10, 2023
These are the results.
British Columbia: Forestry
With 55 million hectares of forested land, B.C. is one of the world's largest exporters of wood products. pic.twitter.com/iAC6Hy6a5I
