Spiral Town Ai Spiral Art — X/Twitter screenshot compilation showing the spiral town artwork alongside various user reactions and debate comments.

Spiral Town Ai Spiral Art

2023AI-generated artwork / optical illusionsemi-active

Published March 24, 2026

Also known as: AI Spiral Art

Spiral Town, also known as AI Spiral Art, is an AI-generated image of a medieval village whose buildings and shadows create the visual illusion of a spiraling vortex. Created using Stable Diffusion by a user known as @MrUgleh, the image went viral on Reddit and X (formerly Twitter) in September 2023, sparking intense debate about the nature of AI-generated art and whether knowing an image's origin should change how people feel about it1.

ai generated memes viral photo memes debate memes optical illusion memes ai image generation memes

Overview

Spiral Town is a piece of AI-generated digital art depicting a fantastical medieval village arranged in a way that makes the buildings, alleyways, and shadows form the appearance of a downward spiral. The optical illusion effect is what made it so striking. Viewers scrolling past it could easily mistake it for a hand-painted illustration by a skilled artist, which is exactly what happened when it started circulating without context about its AI origins2.

The image was produced using Stable Diffusion, an open-source image generation model, with additional processing through ControlNet, a deep learning tool that allows fine-tuning of texture, depth, and spatial composition in generated images1. The title referenced a "different approach to qr monster," suggesting the creator was experimenting with spiral-pattern techniques that had gained popularity in the Stable Diffusion community for encoding QR codes into artistic images2.

Origin & Background

Platform
Reddit /r/stablediffusion (original post), X/Twitter (viral spread)
Key People
@MrUgleh / u/Ugleh, @deepfates
Date
2023

On September 10, 2023, Reddit user u/Ugleh posted the image to the /r/stablediffusion subreddit with the title "Spiral Town – different approach to qr monster." The post picked up over 3,000 upvotes within five days2.

The next day, September 11, 2023, X user @deepfates reposted the image with the single-word caption "unnh." The post blew up, collecting more than 67,000 likes in four days2. Notably, @deepfates acknowledged the chain of reposts with a comment: "I stole this from someone on Twitter who stole this from someone on Reddit. Shout out to all of humanity [...] who contributed training data"1.

How It Spread

The @deepfates repost triggered a wave of reactions that split sharply between admiration and disappointment. Many users expressed genuine awe at the image before learning it was AI-generated, then reversed course2.

On September 12, X user @ZakugaMignon posted a reaction that pulled in over 36,000 likes in three days. Another user, @99_monochrome, wrote "Going through the 7 stages of grief after learning this was ai" and racked up 23,000 likes in a similar timeframe2. The "sadness" angle became its own mini-narrative, with WIRED describing the broader sentiment: "'Saddest thing is that it's AI,' one user said"1.

Not everyone was upset. Tech investor Paul Graham (@paulg) posted the image on September 11 with the caption "This was the point where AI-generated art passed the Turing Test for me," earning over 20,000 likes2. X user @shambibble pushed back on the backlash, arguing that "everyone replying 'I thought this was cool but its AI' is conceding the only ultimate criterion for evaluating art," comparing the reaction to people refusing to enjoy fan-fiction or amateur remixes2.

A comedic layer appeared when X user @natetella reposted the image on September 11 with the deadpan claim "I painted this," pulling 40,000 likes in four days2. On September 14, the actual creator @MrUgleh surfaced in the thread, replying to @deepfates's post with additional spiral-themed images2.

The image became a flashpoint for larger questions about AI art. WIRED's coverage framed it within the broader context of a US Copyright Office decision that had recently denied copyright protection to an award-winning AI-generated artwork by Colorado artist Matthew Allen, who planned to appeal in federal court1.

How to Use This Meme

Spiral Town is not a traditional meme template with text overlays or a fill-in-the-blank format. Instead, it functions as a conversation starter and a litmus test for attitudes toward AI art. People typically share it in one of three ways:

1

As an "is this AI?" challenge — posting the image without context to see if people assume it's hand-made, then revealing its origins

2

As ammunition in AI art debates — either as proof that AI can create genuinely impressive work, or as an example of why AI art feels hollow once its origins are known

3

As inspiration for AI art experimentation — the spiral optical illusion technique inspired other Stable Diffusion users to create similar spiral-patterned architectural scenes using ControlNet

Cultural Impact

Spiral Town landed at a critical moment in the AI art discourse. By September 2023, generative image tools had already stirred controversy in art communities, but Spiral Town crystallized the debate into a single, shareable moment. The image was notable because it didn't look like typical AI art. There were no telltale warped fingers or nonsensical text. It just looked good1.

WIRED's Jason Parham used the image as the centerpiece for a larger essay about authenticity in the AI era, writing that what the debate around Spiral Town "suggests is more than a blurring of human and machine worlds, but the matter of just how real — authentic — we want our future to be"1. He also noted that even when AI art is "questionable," it "shifts the conversation and reframes all questions about creative meaning"1.

The viral moment coincided with Matthew Allen's copyright dispute over his AI-generated artwork "Théâtre D'opéra Spatial," which the US Copyright Office had ruled ineligible for copyright due to its lack of human authorship1. Together, the two events pushed the "is AI art real art?" question into mainstream media.

Fun Facts

The original Reddit post title mentioned "qr monster," referencing a popular Stable Diffusion technique where QR codes are embedded into artistic images using ControlNet's spatial conditioning2.

@natetella's joke post claiming "I painted this" got more likes (40,000) than many of the serious discussion posts about the image2.

The creator @MrUgleh didn't enter the viral conversation until three days after the image exploded, on September 142.

WIRED writer Jason Parham admitted he personally found Spiral Town "boring" even while acknowledging its cultural significance in the AI art debate1.

Frequently Asked Questions