Zack London is reluctant to describe himself as an artist. At least for the work he’s most known for. The 33-year-old American is by many accounts a talented illustrator, but to almost 500,000 followers online he’s better known as the man behind Gossip Goblin .
Under this Instagram alias London shares videos starring Fredvog, a fictional adventurer of his creation who looks a little like Gandalf in a red gnome’s hat. These popular shorts see the protagonist encounter all sorts of absurd and Tolkienian creatures: goblins, trolls, tiny civilisations living atop wild truffles, ominous beings from the underworld, a holy cat empire and their age-old adversaries, the mole men. It’s all a bit surreal, but there’s something compelling about the narratives London creates.
What’s unique about his work is that, from the soothing voiceover to the photorealistic visuals, it’s all created using artificial intelligence (AI). “It’s radically different than the stuff I’ve been doing my whole life,” London says from his home in Stockholm. As a UX – or user experience – designer he has kept a keen eye on developments in the tech world; two years ago he realised that a computer could produce artwork of a similar quality to a piece he might spend more than 100 hours on.
So London began experimenting with generative-AI tools. READ MORE We asked ChatGPT to write like Marian Keyes, John Boyne and Paul Howard. Now they rate the results From The Terminator to Frankenstein, 12.
