Generated AI Portraits Are Breaking the Internet

If you've been scrolling through Instagram over the weekend, chances are you've seen AI-generated images of your friends all over your timeline.

Thanks to the app, Lensa AI, social media users have been discovering what they might look like if they were a 1920's flapper or a forest nymph. The viral image editing app, created by Prisma AI, possesses the capabilities to transform selfies into "magic avatars," fueling our generation's penchant for escapism and digital realities.

Text-to-image apps such as DALL-E , which use AI to create new images from text or image prompts, have skyrocketed to success in the past year, fundamentally shifting the creative industry and the value we place on human craftmanship. Similarly, Lensa AI offers a state-of-the-art technology that is capable of generating multiple artworks from the prompts you enter. The company explains, "These AI avatars are generated from scratch, but with your face in mind." Of course, no social media trend is without its share of controversy as the app's parent company Prisma AI has come under scrutiny in the past for keeping its users' sensitive information. The pictures uploaded into the platform are used to better train the program's AI functions, calling into question its privacy policy and ethics.

Taking a closer look at its terms and conditions, one can see that while the app "does not use photos you provide...for any reason other than to apply different stylized filters or effects to them," it does not specify how long the company holds onto personal data.

For those who have yet to join in on the fun, Lensa AI is not free of charge as users must pay $3.99 USD to obtain access to 50 photos. To receive fantastical images of yourself as a renaissance woman or woodland fairy, simply upload ten to 20 close-up selfies in a variety of different backgrounds and facial expressions to the app. Brace yourself for bugs and glitches as some have gotten artistic renderings of themselves with extra limbs.

Once the app processes your uploads, you'll select how many photos you'd like to receive. 20 minutes later, your down digital AI-generated self-portraits will be revealed.

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