Me, Myself and AI
A newsletter dedicated to artificial intelligence.
Last month you probably noticed your friends looking like magical fairies and astronauts on social media. Lensa—an app that uses artificial intelligence to create portraits out of your selfies—went viral (and raised criticism for stealing from artists and using user’s photos to train their AI system). The AI portraits might seem like a novel advance in technology, but it’s actually a predictable progression from Zuckerberg’s Metaverse and ‘Instagram Face,’ where our faces are increasingly glossed over and unrealistic, and a natural next step from Facetuning and other editing apps that allow people to perfect their self-image.
I’ll admit, I bought into Lensa (before finding out that they stole artist’s work and about the privacy issues). I am a Leo at heart, and my vainness got the best of me. While they delivered a quick boost of excitement, ultimately the avatars left me feeling discontent. They looked like a perfect version of me, yet I c…