Viral Instagram Photographer Has a Confession: His Photos Are AI-Generated (arstechnica.com) 28
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: With over 26,000 followers and growing, Jos Avery's Instagram account has a trick up its sleeve. While it may appear to showcase stunning photo portraits of people, they are not actually people at all. Avery has been posting AI-generated portraits for the past few months, and as more fans praise his apparently masterful photography skills, he has grown nervous about telling the truth. "[My Instagram account] has blown up to nearly 12K followers since October, more than I expected," wrote Avery when he first reached out to Ars Technica in January. "Because it is where I post AI-generated, human-finished portraits. Probably 95%+ of the followers don't realize. I'd like to come clean."
Avery emphasizes that while his images are not actual photographs (except two, he says), they still require a great deal of artistry and retouching on his part to pass as photorealistic. To create them, Avery initially uses Midjourney, an AI-powered image synthesis tool. He then combines and retouches the best images using Photoshop. With Midjourney, anyone can pay a subscription fee for the privilege of generating art from text-based descriptions, called "prompts." Midjourney's creators taught the AI model how to synthesize images by showing it millions of examples of art from other artists. It can generate stunning photorealistic images that can fool some people into thinking they're real photos, especially if retouched later.
Originally an AI skeptic, Avery has become a convert to the new art form. Such work attracts great controversy in the art world, partly due to ethical issues around scraping human-made artwork without consent. But thanks to that artistic knowledge built into the model, some of the most skilled AI-augmented practitioners can render imagery far more vividly than if a human were working alone. "I am honestly conflicted," Avery said when he approached Ars to tell his story. "My original aim was to fool people to showcase AI and then write an article about it. But now it has become an artistic outlet. My views have changed."
Avery emphasizes that while his images are not actual photographs (except two, he says), they still require a great deal of artistry and retouching on his part to pass as photorealistic. To create them, Avery initially uses Midjourney, an AI-powered image synthesis tool. He then combines and retouches the best images using Photoshop. With Midjourney, anyone can pay a subscription fee for the privilege of generating art from text-based descriptions, called "prompts." Midjourney's creators taught the AI model how to synthesize images by showing it millions of examples of art from other artists. It can generate stunning photorealistic images that can fool some people into thinking they're real photos, especially if retouched later.
Originally an AI skeptic, Avery has become a convert to the new art form. Such work attracts great controversy in the art world, partly due to ethical issues around scraping human-made artwork without consent. But thanks to that artistic knowledge built into the model, some of the most skilled AI-augmented practitioners can render imagery far more vividly than if a human were working alone. "I am honestly conflicted," Avery said when he approached Ars to tell his story. "My original aim was to fool people to showcase AI and then write an article about it. But now it has become an artistic outlet. My views have changed."
Surprised? (Score:2)
Re:Surprised? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3)
However. You could take real photos of subjects and make them look fake through skin smoothing, lightning, etc. In the end if you like it, you like it. They don't do much for me personally and it doesn't matter if they are pictures of real people or not.
Now here's the future, the creepy, creepy, lucrativ
Re: (Score:1)
Re:Surprised? (Score:4, Informative)
So many real photographs do in the age of Photoshop.
Re: (Score:2)
So many real photographs do in the age of Photoshop.
Age of Photoshop? Oh lol, you need to to go to an art history museum at some point. There's nothing about the current age that makes photos look fake. There's only wider access to tools which people previously needed to specialise in.
Anyone who ran their own dark room in the 20th century cranked out highly fake looking photos at will. You just limited your exposure to people who snapped a pic and gave the cannister to their local drug store to process with the expectation that photos looked normal.
Re: (Score:3)
Joke's on you, pal. (Score:5, Funny)
All your followers are AI-generated as well.
If they speak to you, does it matter? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Curation is where the skill lies.
As I see it, with most modern art the skill lies in selling it to suckers.
Generating what? (Score:1)
Giveaway (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
It's more than that. We intuitively understand the patterns that faces take which, in all likelihood, reflect a set of underlying genes that can be present or absent. These faces fall slightly outside of that realm. There are certain curves or combinations of features present in these images that we don't observe in daily life. That isn't to say they aren't visually appealing or works of art in some sense, but they don't ring true, and it is, for now at least, obvious they are not portraits of real people
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Re:Giveaway (Score:4)
It's mostly the lack of subsurface scattering on the skin that gives it away.
Really? If he was generating the images with a 3d modelling software sure, but details like that should be one of the things that AI really nails.
Personally, the textures don't look off to me (though I'm not a photographer) but if it's lacking I'd expect it's a result of his retouching more than the AI-generation.
Of the photos there, the falling snowflakes seem off (both visually, but also you need pretty good timing to catch big snowflakes like that). And the old men both seem a bit off, otherwise I'm not really certain which are the real ones.
Re: (Score:2)
You're thinking in boolean when you should be thinking in floating point.
Next Revelation Coming (Score:2)
We will learn that Jos Avery is actually an AI, too!
Now we know the AIs are here, among us, that they have taken human-posting form; we must somehow convince a disbelieving world that the nightmare has already begun.
Luckily my ugly monkey NFT is real art! (Score:2)
Made by a real artist who had to spend at least 2 minutes to decide the color scheme and selecting just the right accessoiry overlay.
The artist had to rush to make many of these extremely value pictures of which I don't even own the image.
But the QR code of the link to the blockchain record is really nice above my sofa.
slashdot confession (Score:2)
All of those GFs I've had were fake, the pictures of them in the basement with me were AI generated.
Instagram Al-Generated photos (Score:1)